154 MR. F. CURREY ON BRITISH FUNGI. 
slightly curved, colourless, 0:0004 to 0°0005 inch long; paraphyses clavato-elongate, acu- 
minate, septate. 
On a gorse-stick, the end of which was sunk in the mud of a pool of water, on Paul's 
Cray Common, Kent, May 31, 1862. 
Plate XXV. fig. 18 represents the plant considerably magnified. One of the stems, as 
will be seen, has thrown out a branch, at the end of which a minute disc is formed. 
Fig. 11 represents the sporidia, and fig. 12 the paraphyses, highly magnified. 
This plant is remarkable in its densely cæspitose and apparently branching habit, and 
the paraphyses are very peculiar. The aquatic habitat of this and the following species 
is also an unusual character. 
HELOTIUM AQUATICUM, n. S. 
Solitary ; stem about ith of an inch long; disc minute, very little wider than the apex 
of the delicate, almost filiform stem. Sporidia colourless hyaline, 0:0007 inch long, with 
granules accumulated at each end. On a fragment of stick, in water, Paul’s Cray, 
Common, Kent, May 31, 1862. 
Plate XXV. fig. 19 represents an ascus with sporidia, X 430 diameters. 
The fruit is large for the size of the plant. I cannot remember the colour of the dise, 
haying unfortunately omitted to make a note of it ; and the specimens, having been kept 
in spirits, have turned quite black. The specimens of the preceding species (H. luteolum) 
have been kept in glycerine, and have retained their characters admirably. 
ASCOBOLUS VIRIDIS, n. S. 
On clay ground; sessile, 3rd of an inch wide, plane or very slightly concave, of a dark 
dingy yellowish-green colour, externally very furfuraceous, almost tomentose;; spores 
elliptic-acuminate, rugoso-striate, amethyst-purple. Hanham Woods, near Bristol, Oct. 
15, 1861. | 
The above characters may seem at first sight to differ but little from those of the 
common 4. furfuraceus ; but the very large size, dark colour, and peculiar habitat of the 
plant seem sufficient to separate it from that species. 
ASCOBOLUS FURFURACEUS, P. 
In this well-known species I have observed that the inner membrane of the ascus is 
capable of being entirely detached from the outer one. There are several fungi in which 
this inner membrane (the existence of which was first noticed by Mr. Berkeley*) has 
been seen to become partially detached from the outer one, but I do not know of any 
instance in which the inner membrane has emerged entire. In examining the asci of 
some specimens of A. furfuraceus which occurred at Malling, near Lewes, in September 
1862, I noticed that the inner membrane had become entirely free from the outer one, 
carrying with it the included sporidia. 
Plate XXV. fig. 9 represents an ascus with its inner membrane and sporidia it 
and fig. 10 shows the free inner membrane containing the sporidia. 
* Mag. of Zool. & Bot. vol. ii. p. 222. | 
