3 18 Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Mr. C. E. Broome on British Fungi. 



a plant of the same natural order, at first sight seems to claim 

 a place in that genus, but it has not the very peculiar structure 

 to which we shall advert towards the end of our memoir. Should 

 the large Sclerotioid bodies in that genus hereafter prove to be 

 ascigerous, it will then be time to consider the propriety of asso- 

 ciating the two species. 



Plate X. fig. 8*. a. Perithecium ; b. subiculum ; c. asci ; d. sporidia. 

 All more or less magnified. 



618. S. (Byssisedse) Desmazierii, n. s. Subiculo latissime 

 effuso tomentoso; peritheciis magnis insidentibus globosis hie 

 illic confluentibus scabriusculis ostiolo papillseformi ; ascis elon- 

 gatis ; sporidiis elongato-cymbiformibus 6-7 nucleatis fuscis. 

 On the ground in woods. First found, in company with M. Des- 

 mazieres, in the beginning of August, and still very abundant, at 

 the end of October 1851, Colly weston, Norths. 



Spreading widely over the ground, fallen leaves, &c, and cover- 

 ing them with a mouse-coloured tomentose subiculum, which 

 consists of somewhat branched anastomosing threads, the tips of 

 which give off opposite, often subdivided branchlets, which form 

 little racemes, surmounted by oblong conidia. Perithecia large, 

 half immersed in the subiculum, which in age acquires a darker 

 hue, somewhat scabrous, dull pitchy black, or plumbaginous, 

 globose, with a central papillseform ostiolum, which is frequently 

 seated in a little irregular areola. Asci elongated, clavate, inner 

 membrane furnished with an oblong process at the tip ; sporidia 

 large, cymbiform, elongated, subacuminate, at first hyaline, with 

 two or three variously-sized globules, at length dark brown, con- 

 taining six to seven globose nuclei. 



This magnificent species resembles closely Spharia aquila, Fr., 

 but the colour of the subiculum is different, as is also the habitat, 

 but above all, the sporidia, which instead of being subelliptic 

 and short as in that species and S. fusca, are much elongated and 

 very peculiar in form. 



We have dedicated this magnificent species to M. Desmazieres, 

 as one of the results of his short visit to England during the past 

 ijummer. The species to which this name was given without 

 any characters is now rejected both by Fries and M. Desmazieres 

 as imperfectly known. A notice of it will be found in the Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle for 1851. 



Plate IX. fig. 1 . a. Subiculum ; b. ascus ; c. sporidia in various stages 

 of growth. All more or less magnified. 



*S. tristis, Tode, vol. ii. p. 9. t. 9. f. 67. We have just re- 

 ceived the true species from the Rev. A. Bloxam, which is cha- 

 racterized by the collapsing perithecia and minute oblong curved 



