494, MR. F. CURREY ON BRITISH FUNGI. 
colour, uniseriate, binucleate, 0:0003 to 0:0004 inch long. Hab. On rotten wood, near 
Batheaston, October 30, 1863. 
Plate LI. fig. 10 represents the plant in a young state, and fig. 11 a full-grown speci- 
men, both of the natural size. Fig. 12 shows an ascus with sporidia, X 430 diameters. 
SPH EROBOLUS STELLATUS, Tode. 
In the spring of this year (1864) Mr. Sawyer sent me some fungi growing upon wood, 
which at first sight appeared to come nearer to Cyphella than any other known genus. 
Each plant had the form of a white elongated hollow tube, the mouth of the tube being, 
however, much more contracted than is usual in Cyphella. I could discover no fruit; 
and being curious to ascertain the species of Cyphella, as I supposed, I took some pains 
to cultivate the plant. After some weeks, small spherical protuberances made their 
appearance all over the ends of the tubes, and this led me to make a further examination. 
Upon dissection I found the interior of the spherical protuberances filled with an agglo- 
meration of spores, and after a short time the usual stellate fissure of Spherobolus stellatus 
made its appearance, and the sporangia were ejected and adhered in numbers to the inner 
surface of the bell-glass with which the fungi were covered. The elongated white hollow 
tubes seemed to have no other function than that of forming a support (or stroma) for 
the spherical warts of the Spherobolus, and, as far as I could judge, were in fact nothing 
more than an abnormally developed mycelium. The strangest part of the matter, how- 
ever, was, that at the bottom of each of the white tubes there was imbedded a small 
whitish maggot, which Dr. Gray and Mr. Frederick Smith kindly examined for me; but, 
owing to the tough nature of the tissue in which the larva was embedded, the latter 
could not be extracted in a sufficiently perfect state for determination. I had therefore 
to wait until the larvze were perfected, which took place a few days later. They were 
transformed into flies, belonging, as Mr. Smith informs me, to the genus Cecidomyia. 
Plate LI. fig. 13 represents the tubes (which are attached at their base to the wood) 
covered with the Spherobolus, slightly magnified. Fig. 14 (a) represents a tube without 
any Spherobolus, (b) another tube with several Spheroboli, (c) the Spherobolus on the 
same wood in its normal state; all magnified. : 
PATELLARIA BICOLOR, n. S. 
Disk variable in size, the largest not much more than 7; inch wide, of a bright golden 
yellow, fringed with rough hairs, which are sometimes of the same colour as the disk, 
sometimes of a beautiful scarlet ; occasionally there is a tuft of hairs in the middle of the 
disk, corresponding with the point of attachment of the disk to the wood. Sporidia 
colourless, biseriate, slightly curved, 3-septate, 0:0007 to 0-0008 inch long. On wood 
somewhat decayed. 
This is a small but beautiful species, the contrast in the colour of the disk and the 
marginal hairs giving it a striking appearance under the microscope. It might at first 
sight be taken for a Peziza, but the toughness of its texture and its septate sporidia 
point clearly to the genus Patellaria. 
