KEY TO ORDERS. 



a — Hymenium covered by a membrane until maturity of spores 



Phacidiales 



a — Hymenium exposed from the first or very early 



b _ Receptacle pileate, mitrate, or clavate Helvellales 



b _ Receptacle cup-shaped or plane Pezizales 



Order I. Phacidiales. 



Vegetative portion within the substratum ; saprophytic or 

 parasitic; apothecia immersed or superficial, at first enclosed 

 within a membrane which ruptures irregularly at maturity of 

 the spores. 



Family I. Stictidaceae. 



Saprophytic. Apothecia soft, fleshy, bright or light colored, 

 immersed in the substratum, rounded or elliptic. Hypothecium 

 thin or nearly absent. Exciple thin, tough, membranaceous, ad- 

 nate to the substratum. 



Genus I. Propolis Fr. Sum. Veg. Scand. 372. 1849. 



Type species, Stictis farinosa Pers. Myc. Eur. 339. 1822. 

 Apothecia pale, yellowish or greenish, exterior brownish. 

 Paraphyses linear, somewhat branched or merely indented at the 

 ends. Asci 8 spored, clavate or cylindrico-clavate, somewhat 

 narrowed at the base. Spores oblong, more or less curved, color- 

 less, guttulate. Growing on decayed wood. 



Propolis faginea (Schrad.) Karst. Myc. Fenn. 244. 1871. 



Hysterium fagineum Schrad. Journ. Bot. 2: 68. 1799. 



Apothecia immersed, spreading, 3-7 mm. long, elliptical, 

 pale, fleshy, membrane covering the hymenium pale grayish. 

 Hymenium gray, hypothecium very poorly developed. Para- 

 physes filiform, branched at the ends, hyaline when seen singly, 

 in mass the ends appear to be filled with coloring matter and to 

 be adherent. Asci cylindrico-clavate. Spores oblong or fusi- 

 form, an oil globule in each end, 20-26 mic. long and 6-8 mic. 

 wide. 



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