626 THE GENUS HYSTERIUM AND SOME OF ITS ALLIES. 
birds of the high ‘Valley are essentially aerial; they show a - 
greater development of wings over legs; climbers, scratchers, 
runners, waders and swimmers are few. There is less brilliant 
plumage than in lower, warmer altitudes. Green and brown are 
the prevailing colors. Even the hummers are surpassed by those 
on the Pacific slope, in the Valley of the Magdalena and along the 
coast to Rio. All of the Trochilide belong to the group Polyt- 
minæ ; the “ Hermit” hummers keep to the dense forests. Leaving 
out the Docimaster (which properly belong to Nanegal on the west 
slope), the average length of ‘the bills of Quitonian hummers is 
three-fourths of an inch. Their nests are covered with moss; 
never with lichens. The finches nidify in October; the condors 
in February; the hummers in April. 
THE GENUS HYSTERIUM AND SOME OF 
ITS ALLIES 
BY DR. J. S. BILLINGS, U.S.A. 
My purpose in the following paper is to enable those who are 
commencing the study of mycology, but who have not access 
to authentic specimens and to the greatly scattered and often con- 
tradictory literature of the subject, to identify the common species 
of the genus Hysterium and its closely allied forms. My data 
for this purpose are derived from the examination of authentic 
specimens in. the Schweinitz Herbarium, and in the herbarium of 
Mr. H. W. Ravenel of South Carolina; from specimens named 
by Bev: M. A. Curtis, and from the description and figures g gee 
by M. Duby in his “Mémoire sur la Tribu des Hystérinées,” 
Geneva, 1861. 
The genus Hysterium is one of the Ascomycetous forms of 
fungi characterized by the peculiar shape and mode of opening 
of its conceptacle or perithecium,* which is either elliptical or 
longitudinal, opening by a slit or fissure running in the direction 
of its greatest length. 
he species are found upon dead wood, bark, leaves and stems 
*For explanation, with figures, of the parts of fungi, see NATURALIST, VOl. iv. P. 
667-674. 
