[No. 43. 
[March, 1879. 
(Smilha, 
A QUARTERLY RECORD OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY 
AND ITS LITERATURE. 
BRITISH SPHH3RIACEI. 
By M. C. Cooke and C. B. Plowright. 
So many additions and corrections require to be made to the 
Sphaariacei, published in the “ Handbook of British Fungi,” that 
we have deemed it expedient to prepare a synopsis of the addi- 
tional species, with a few of the most important corrections and 
references to the descriptions. As to the vast number of new 
genera now in vogue with many of the continental mycologists, we 
regret that we cannot accept them. We prefer adhering to a 
natural system, with all its difficulties or failings, to reverting to an 
artificial system, or a medley of several systems, the most to be 
said in their favour being the facility they offer for the manufacture 
of new genera and species, which, if logically persevered in, must 
end in inextricable confusion. Such genera, or sub-genera, as we 
have introduced, are based on other than carpological characters, 
which latter we hold to be as insufficient as they may be seductive. 
When we state that we are not prepared to accept the sporidia as 
a basis of classification (except for the artificial grouping of the 
species in a genus), this must be held as sufficient apology for the 
absence of “ startling novelties.” 
A. NECTRLEI. 
Gen. 1. TORRUBIA. Tul.— Cooke Hdbk., p. 769. 
No additions, or corrections, except that 
Torrubia pistillariaeformis. B. & Br. was undoubtedly growing 
on a female coccus , transformed into a body resembling a sclerotium 
by the mycelium. We have received identical specimens from the 
United States, in which the coccus was less changed. 
Gen. 2. CLAVICEPS. Tul.— Handbk., p. 772. 
Gen. 3. EPICHLOE. Fr.— Handbk., p. 773. 
Gen. 4. HYPOCREA. Fr.— Handbk., p. 774. 
Hypocrea contorta B $ C.— Grev. iv., p. 123. — On oak stick. 
7 
