Grassland : New and Critical British Fungi. 



9 



catenate, formed in basipetal succession, brick-red, perfectly 

 g-lobose, generally 11-13 \>-, occasionally 16 fi or even 18 /x 

 diameter, chains simple or branched, contents granular, some- 

 times a narrow neck exists between two conidia. 



Hab. — On cats' dung - . Halifax, 22nd February 1899. 

 Barlaea Persoonii (Crouan). Ascobolus Persoonii Crouan, 

 Flor. Finist., p. 56; Peziza atro=violacea Del. de Seyn., 

 Rech. Veg\ Inf. III., p. 84; P. violascens Cooke, Mycogr., 

 p. 46, f. 83; Phill. Brit. Disc, p. 88; Barlaea Persoonii 

 Sacc. Syll. VIII., n. 438; B. violascens, Mass. , Brit. Fung-. 

 Flo., Vol. IV., p. 398. 

 Fine specimens of what I at first took to be Peziza violascens 

 Cke. were received from Mr. Needham, Hebden Bridge, July 

 1899. Hab., mossy ground. 



On finding- that the spores were distinctly rough and did not 

 allow of its being- placed under B. violascens (Cke.), in which 

 the spores are stated to be smooth, I submitted specimens to 

 Mr. Massee, who replied as follows : — 



' The Peziza is typical B. Persoonii Sacc. I find on turning 

 up Crouan's first description of the species that it is fig-ured and 

 described as having warted spores, and he called it Ascobolus 

 Persoonii. There is also a specimen in the Herbarium from 

 Crouan which agrees absolutely with yours. 



1 Xow Cooke as well as myself had up to the present over- 

 looked this authentic specimen, as it was put in with Ascobolus ; • 

 and Cooke found a violet peziza which he considered to be- 

 Crouan's species, with smooth spores, and described it as such, 

 altering- the name to Peziza violascens. I examined Cooke's 

 specimens and found the spores smooth, and called it Barhca 

 violascens. Saccardo also copied Cooke's description. The 

 species must now be Barlaea Persoonii Sacc, and Cooke's 

 species will have to be B. Cookei.' 



The following- notes were taken while examining- the Hebden 

 Bridge specimens : — Ascophore sessile on a narrow base, hemi- 

 spherical then expanded, disc plane or undulate, 4-8 mm. across, 

 wholly pale-dingy amethyst, glabrous, margin rather obtuse, 

 flesh waxy-brittle, 1 '5-2 mm. thick ; excipulum parenchymatous, 

 cells g-lobose or elong-ated, 35-60 /x (longest diameter , hyaline, 

 cortex thin, consisting- of not more than 1-2 layers of globose 

 cells 20 //. diam. ; hyrjothecial cells small and almost indis- 

 ting-uishable in outline; asci cylindrical, 200-210 x 13-14 /', apex 

 rounded, pedicel narrow ; spores eight, uniseriate, hyaline, 

 spherical, rough, 1-2 guttulate, 9/5-1 1 l L diam.; paraphyses 

 cylindrical, simple or branched, septate, hyaline, 3-4 /» thick, 

 apex always curved. 



iqoo January 



