290 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOQAMIG BOTANY. 



raneous in their mode of growth, as P. sepulta, which occurs in 

 myriads every year about XJpsal, and has been found by Dr. 

 Badham in Suffolk. It is known at once by its coarse woolly 

 coat, soiled with fragments of earth or sand, by its globose 

 form, and the imperfect exposure of the hymenium. Hyd- 

 nocystis is, in fact, very near to such Pezizce, though essentially 

 distinct and far more neat in habit. 



299. The large genus Peziza embraces many of the most 

 elegant Fungi, from the little white and red Peziza elegans, 

 which is sprinkled over almost every fallen twig of the larch 

 and other conifers ; the pale toothed cups of P. ■pronata, 

 which abounds on dead stems of herbaceous plants ; the 

 scarlet P. scutellata, with its edge fringed with tawny hairs ; 

 the gTaceful mousegrey P. macropus, to the gorgeous P. coc- 

 cinea, which attracts the notice of children from its elegant form 

 and bright colour ; the more irregular but not less brilliant 

 P. aurantia, and the font-shaped P. acetabulum, which 

 might form an elegant pattern for the architect or silversmith. 

 Fifty others might be mentioned of equal pretensions to 

 elegance of outline and brilliancy of colouring, especially if the 

 exotic allies of P. coccinea be taken into account, as P. fioccosa 

 of North America, with its delicate hairs, like those of some 

 saUow or P. tricholoma and hystrix bearded like the pard. 



300. In Helvella (Fig. 13, a, h), the cup is inverted, so as to 

 form a sort of mitre-shaped or ovate pUeus, with the margins 

 free in some species, but in others more or less perfectly 

 attached to the stem ; in some the head thus formed is lobed, 

 so as to resemble a mitre. When the cup and stem are per- 

 fectly .soldered together, we have the clavate species of the group. 

 In Spathulea the stem is still visible on one side through the 

 greater part of the pileus, and the consequence is that the 

 hymenium assumes a spathulate form or that of a battledoor. 

 Its elegant buff tint and curious shape render it highly at- 

 tractive. In Mitrula and Leotia we have distinct stems, with a 

 sub-globose head more or less intimately connected with it. 

 Mitrula, paludosa is remarkable for its always growing on 

 leaves or other vegetable remains rotting in water. Its scarlet 

 head and white delicately tinted stem make it a most charm- 



