306 BRITISH DISCOMYCETES. 
About 100 to 200 broad. 
Name—Minutus, minute ; very minute. 
Near Birmingham! (Mr. W. B. Grove). » 
4. Ascophanus argenteus. (Curr.) 
Gregarious, exceedingly minute, barely visible to the 
naked eye, subpyriform, of a silvery-white colour, 
oblong-ovate, narrowed to a point at the base; sporidia 
8, elliptic, colourless, 12 x 764; paraphyses clavate at 
the apices. 
Ascobolus argenteus—Curr.; Cooke, “Jour. Bot.,” 
May, 1864, f.6; B. and Br., “Ann. Nat. Hist.,” No. 1088, 
t. 17, £.32; Cooke, “Handbk.,” No. 2210; Gill. “Champ.,” 
p. 142. Ascophanus argenteus—Boud., “ Ann. Se. Nat.” 
(1869), vol. 10, t. 11, f. 32; “ Ascob.,” p. 55. 
On cow-dung. 
Scarcely visible to the naked eye. 
Name—Argentum, silver; of silvery appearance. 
Eltham (Mr. F. Currey) 
5. Ascophanus lacteus. (Cooke and Phil.) 
Scattered, at first obconical, then expanded, slightly 
concave, at length convex, milk-white, glabrous; asci 
clavate; sporidia 8, generally biseriate, elliptic, hyaline, 
smooth, 10 x 54; paraphyses filiform. 
Ascobolus (Ascophanus) lacteus—Cooke and Phil. in 
“ Grevillea,” v. p. 119. 
Exs.—Cooke, “ Fung. Brit.,” ed. ii. 560. 
On cow-dung. . 
Cups 4 to ? of a line broad. In external appearance 
it certainly resembles an Helotiwm, but here the resem- 
blance ceases. In size as well as sporidia it differs from 
the pale forms of Ascoph. ochraceus, and from Ascoph. 
argentcus in the slightly smaller sporidia, the narrower 
asci, and the filiform paraphyses. 
Name—Lae, milk ; milk-white. 
Shrewsbury ! 
