1 7 1 Transactions of the Society. 



examination to have no affinity whatever with the Thelephoreae, nor 

 even the Hymenonrycetes, but with the Gastrornycetes, and even 

 here not agreeing with any established order, but combining the 

 salient morphological features of the Hymenogastreae and Nidulariese 

 respectively. 



The plant grows on dead branches, originating beneath the bark, 

 through which it bursts in the form of a minute ball, that soon expands 

 at the apex, and assumes a cup-like form, more or less cylindrical, 

 or slightly expanded upwards, measuring when full-grown from 

 4-6 mm. across, and about the same in height. Before bursting 

 through the bark, a vertical section is circular in outline, about 2 mm. 

 diameter, with an irregular base, owing to unequal penetration of the 

 mycelium into the substratum, and consists externally of thick- walled, 

 colourless, aseptate. closely interwoven hyphse, averaging about 5 /x 

 diameter. At the base of the plant this tissue is more abundant and 

 convex towards the centre, resembling in form the so-called columella 

 in some species of Lycoperdon. If the section is exactly median, a 

 minute vertical slit in the outer thick-walled tissue is seen at the apex, 

 which at first suggests the idea of a pore or ostiolum, as in the 

 perithecium of a Sphteria, but careful examination shows the slit to 

 be the result of local arrest of the peripheral thick- walled hypha, the 

 innermost portion being alone present, forming the base of what 

 appears at this stage of development as a minute cylindrical depression 

 about 10 fi deep. The central portion consists of compactly inter- 

 woven, thin-walled, septate hyphae, about 3 fju thick, which change 

 towards the periphery into the thick- walled type already described. A 

 few of the latter are also to be seen in the central portion, which at 

 this period exhibits no further differentiation. After breaking through 

 the bark, the plant measures about 4 mm. across, and is yet subglobose 

 and flattened above. The apical slit now appears as a circular depres- 

 sion about 3 mm. across, its floor forming an epiphragm closing the 

 flattened apex, and continuous with the inner portion of the slightly 

 incurved external thick-walled tissue, now differentiated as a peridium. 



At this stage of development a vertical section shows a highly differ- 

 entiated internal structure (fig. 3), which appears to be completed during 

 the period occupied by the plant in bursting through the bark. The 

 external thick-walled tissue now appears as a homogeneous layer about 

 1 mm. thick, sharply defined internally from the central portion except 

 at certain points, and constitutes the peridium. The central portion or 

 gleba is broken up into numerous irregular loculi by dense septa that 

 are continuous with the inner surface of the peridium at numerous points. 

 The septa contain a few thick-walled hyphae, but consist mostly of the 

 thin-walled septate type, which run more or less parallel in the central 

 portion, the free ends and numerous lateral branches bending outwards 

 to form the lateral walls, which at first meet in the centre of the loculi, 

 only recognizable at this period by the parallel arrangement of the 

 central components of the septa. In some instances the hypha along 

 the central line of a septum become more or less disorganized at an 



