426 DR LAUDER LINDSAY ON THE 



late condition is characteristic of the young state only. The cone is sometimes 

 quite symmetrical and well-formed, and generally exhibits distinctly the apicial 

 ostiole (figs. 11, 12 a). The discoid form is characteristic of maturity and age, and 

 is more common than the conical. Here the papilla becomes flattened ; the ostiole 

 is so transformed that it loses all its ordinary characters, and is not recognisable as 

 such ; most frequently it occurs as a saucer-like cavity, surrounded by a thickened 

 margin, resembling the apothecial exciple of Lichens (Lecidese). Sometimes, the 

 cavity becomes funnel-shaped, the perithecium having the form of an inverted 

 cone (figs. 10, 12 b). 



Frequently the perithecia are confluent, and then they lose their normal 

 appearance, and become variously deformed (fig. 9). They are generally seated in 

 the lacunae or interstices of the woody fibres ; and there, from pressure apparently 

 by these fibres, they become variously elongated (fig. 8). Sometimes, from their 

 state of close aggregation and form, they resemble our common Dichcena 

 rugosa, Fr. 



They are originally hypophlseod, developed in the superficial tissues of the 

 bark or wood. Through these they gradually burst in process of development, 

 until they become sub-sessile ; their base only being seated in a hollow of the 

 wood. Sometimes they are seated on pedicle-like projections of the superficial 

 layers of the wood ; the portions of the latter not protected by the growth of the 

 parasite being eroded or worn away by weathering. Generally the fabricated 

 timber on which this Sphceria grows is more or less bleached or whitened by 

 weathering ; and on this whitish base the pitch-black perithecia are prominently 

 visible. 



In the old state, the upper half, or three-fourths of the perithecium, fall away, 

 leaving the base as a black, saucer-like hollow or scar in the wood ; or as a 

 saucer, sessile, or semi-sessile, adnate, not immersed (fig. 13). 



The spores vary in length from -0009" to -0006", and in breadth from •0002 /, to 

 •0003" ; they are septate (3 to 6, or more septa, though frequently 3) ; becoming 

 sub-muriform from longitudinal division of the loculi ; colour varying from olive 

 green to dark brown: outline irregular from bulgings opposite the loculi (fig. 14). 

 They exhibit a double contour (the cell-wall or general envelope being distinct 

 from its loculi) usually in their mature state (b) ; but it is indistinct, or appa- 

 rently absent, in the young («). They have a close general resemblance to the 

 spores of Urceolaria scruposa, L., and Lecidea petrwa, Wulf. They do not differ 

 much, even in size, from those of my New Zealand specimens of the former Lichen. 

 I saw them frequently germinating from one or both ends — the terminal cell be- 

 coming gradually discharged of its colouring matter, and sending forth from its 

 distal end, or extending itself into, a tube about -00015" in diameter; with a 

 double wall, hyaline, or of a brown tinge, especially towards its tip (c). 



In very minute, black, punctiform conceptacles, semi-immersed in the wood, 



