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Transactions of the Boyal Society of South A frica. 
floccis flexuosis, simplicibus, o-5-4"5 /x latis ; sporis concoloribus, ellipsoideis, 
6-8 5 fji X 3-4*5 fJL levibus. 
Hab. — Ad terrain Lourenco Marques, Portuguese East Africa, legit 
H. A. Junod (Plates XIX and XX). 
B. Junodii differs from D. Wrightii, as far as can be ascertained from 
the description of the latter, chiefly in the shape of the spores. In 
D. Wrightii the spores are described as globose, whereas in D. Junodii they 
are distinctly ellipsoid (Plate XXI, h). Lloyd (2), who records D. Wrightii 
from Bahamas and the West Indies, states that the endoperidium is 
"smooth"; Berkeley (1) describes it as "delicately filamentous." In our 
specimens it is slightly rough and floccose. Lloyd also states that the endo- 
peridium " opens by small apertures at the top," and, in a footnote, adds : 
" It is not a definite, protruding mouth, as shown in figure in Engler and 
Prantl." Berkeley in defining the genus merely mentions " ore parvo 
ciliato,'* and in giving the specific characters, says, " opening somewhat after 
the fashion of Geaster finihriatus.'' Our specimens from Portuguese East 
Africa exhibit a distinct fimbriated peristome (Plates XIX and XX). 
The capillitium consists of fairly uniform, smooth, unbranched, wavy 
threads. Lloyd describes the capillitium in his specimens as made up of 
" various diameters from 3-30 mic, branched and interwoven. The thin 
shreds are almost hyaline, smooth, and not widely different from the hyaline 
capillitium of other gasteromycetes. The thick shreds are light yellow 
coloured, and, under a high power, marked with a dense reticulation," 
Berkeley merely states, " Capillitium laxum." Both Berkeley and Lloyd 
describe the spores as globose, while the latter adds that they are " smooth 
or minutely punctate, many short-apiculate." The spores of D. Junodii are 
distinctly ellipsoid and smooth (Plate XXI, b). 
The only other genus which in any way resembles Diplocystis is Broomeia, 
which was first described from South Africa in 1844 by Berkeley. 
Three species have been described— viz. : B. congregata, Berk., and 
B. ellipsospora, V. Hohn, from South Africa ; and B. guadaluj^ensis, Lev., 
from Gruadaloupe. 
The correct identity of the latter species has been questioned by Lloyd, 
who points out that D. Wrightii has been found in Gruadaloupe. 
B. elliijsospora, Y. Hohn, we have not seen, but from the description it 
might well have been placed in the genus Biplocystis, and may even be 
identical with our plant from Portuguese East Africa. 
Both genera agree in that a number of individuals arise from a common 
stroma. In Dijolocystis the stroma is rather thin and saucer-shaped 
(Plate XXI, a) ; in Broomeia it is usually thick and somewhat columnar 
(Plate XXI, c). In mature specimens of B. Junodii a part of the exo- 
peridium remains as a definite coriaceous layer, the edge of the saucer 
enveloping each cluster of individuals ; in Broomeia the experidium, when 
