CRYPTOG AMI A FUNGI. 1 1 7 



* Capsules immersed in a peculiar parenchyma. 

 "Y Fungus-like, erect. 



1. S. hypoxylon, clustered, compressed, black and shaggy at the 

 base, the apices cleft, white and mealy when young ; black, rough, 

 and sterile at the points when mature Sow. Fung. t. 55. PERS. 

 Syn. 5. HOOK. Scot. ii. 4. Clavaria hypoxylon, LIGHTF. Scot. 1059. 

 WITH. iv. 404. Xylaria hypcxylon, GREV. Fl. Edin. 355. 



Hob* Around the stumps of trees, and at hedge bottoms, 

 common in winter. 



Grows in irregular clusters 2 or 3 inches high, more or less 

 branched, of a corky texture, internally white. When 

 the powder is rubbed off, the apices become black like the 

 stem, and it is not until spring that the spherical capsules 

 can be discovered within them. These form a marginal 

 row on each side of a longitudinal section, and some are 

 likewise often, but not always, placed in the interior. 

 They are very obvious, both from their size, and from the 

 contrast afforded by their black colour to the very white 

 pith in which they are immersed. There is a variety 

 smaller and simple, with a distinct cylindrical rough head 

 tapered to a point. This has been called Sph&ria cupressi- 

 formis. It grows in the same situations, and often inter- 

 mixed with the other. A reduced figure of it is given in 

 LOUDON'S Encyclop. No. 16358. 



j- ( Base adnate, effused, chared. 



2. S. stigma, crust widely spreading, brown or black, even, 

 cracked, closely punctured with the minute orifices of the cells ; 

 cells globose, entirely immersed, the orifices very slightly pro- 

 minent; interior white, or ultimately black PERS. Syn. 21. 

 HOOK. Scot. ii. 5. S. decorticata, Sow. Fung. t. 137. Stromatos- 

 phcBria stigma et decorticata, GREV. FL Edin. 357 ; Crypt. Fl. 

 t. 223, f. 2. 



Hob. On dead branches of trees, particularly of hawthorn 

 and beech, originating beneath the bark which it re- 

 moves, and when the part appears as if it had been 

 chared; very common. 



* The figures in this beautiful work are, in every instance in which I have been 

 able to compare them with nature, so uncommonly correct and characteristic, that 

 I could not allow this opportunity to pass without expressing my opinion of its 

 great merit. 



