Notices of British Fungi. 45 



How far it may agree with Th. fcetida, Ehr., formerly presumed by 

 Fries a state of Th. puteana, but now rather considered as a form 

 of Th. stabularis, I am unable to say. 



8. Th. arid a, Fr. El. i. p. 197- — In the inside of decayed haw- 

 thorn, Rockingham Forest. This species when placed in the same 

 closet as the foregoing remained perfectly dry. 



* 9. Pyronema marianum, Carus and Nees v. Esen. Nov. Act. 

 Leop., &c vol. xvii. pt. 1. p. 369, tab. 27- Thelephora carbonaria, 

 Bertero in Hook. Herb. Eng. Fl. vol. v. p. 2, p. 169. — In the same 

 month and year in which this curious plant, first discovered by Ber- 

 tero at Juan Fernandez, occurred in England, it was met with in 

 great abundance, by the celebrated anatomist Dr Carus at Marien- 

 bad, by whom, with the concurrence of Nees Von Esenbeck, a new 

 genus was proposed in the last part of the above cited transactions. 

 As this appears to be an excellent one, though very difficult of de- 

 finition, I take the present opportunity of adopting it, with a slight 

 alteration of one phrase, in the character given by Nees Von Esen- 

 beck in an appendix to Dr Carus's paper, which appears to me cal- 

 culated to mislead, and to be contrary even to Nees Von Esenbeck's 

 own views, who appears to have worded it as it stands in deference 

 to the description given by the learned discoverer of the plant in 

 Germany, rather than to his own better judgment. Dr Carus, how- 

 ever, appears to have paid but little attention to fungi, and there- 

 fore, though any thing coming from such an observer deserves ample 

 consideration, there is less scruple in not following him exactly. 

 The asci which are highly developed, as in the superior Pezizae, are 

 accompanied by paraphyses which, under a high magnifier, were 

 found to contain globose orange-coloured granules. The true ellip- 

 tic sporidia are copiously given out from the plant when laid upon 

 a piece of glass ; the contents of the more slender filaments either 

 lose their colour completely, or are also given out, which, however, 

 has not been observed. I suspect the former to be the real state of 

 the case, the granules becoming invisible from transparency. That 

 the paraphyses should contain granules is probably by no means un- 

 usual. Such would, I believe, be found the case with high magni- 

 fiers in Pezizahumosa, granulata, &c. where a great part of the colour 

 of the hymenium arises from the coloured paraphyses. The matter, 

 however, deserves investigation, as the presumed (but not observed) 

 evacuation of the more slender cells in the plant before us, if con- 

 firmed, would be highly curious. Till this point, however, be clearly 

 proved, it appears to me much better to consider them as the same 

 organs with the paraphyses in Peziza. The generic character will 

 then stand thus : 



