52 
A NEW GENUS OF DISCOMYCETES. 
Discomycetes is doubtless variable, but this follows two types, the 
one pileate, the other cupulate, the one club-shaped, the other cup- 
sbaped, with their various modifications. In the latter the hyme- 
nium lines the concavity of the cup, in the former it is spread over 
the outer upper surface, being deficient in the stem. There is no 
exception to this general rule, so that it is nevei difficult to indi- 
cate the position and limits of the hymenium. They are, there- 
fore, fleshy ascomycetous fungi, with the hymenium, or fructifying 
surface confined to a definite area, but never enclosed in 
perithecia. 
As in all other branches of natural history we encounter 
aberrant forms, which possess great interest because they depart 
from the general type, so here, amongst the Discomycetes, I have 
to describe an aberrant form, which possesses a general interest to 
the mycologist as a new arrangement or inversion of parts or 
organs. 
In 1874 and 1875, Dr. Berggren, of Lund, visited and collected 
in New Zealand, and amongst others he obtained a large and in- 
teresting collection of fungi, and made about one hundred rough 
water-colour sketches. These fungi have passed into my hands 
for determination, and among them the subject of this communica- 
tion, together with two “ sketches from the life.” 
The fungus, which I purpose calling Berggrenia, is ovate, 
pyriform, somewhat clavate, about one inch in height, and 
nearly as much in width, but compressed laterally to one-lourth of 
that thickness in one direction. It is described as looking very 
much like a Tremella , being a little plicate or ribbed below and in- 
flated, so that the centre is hollow, and though attenuated a little at 
the base there is no distinct stem. The base is watery white, the 
upper half a bright reddish orange. 
For some time I was puzzled with this, which at first I regarded 
as a Tremella , or Guepinia , or it might be an ally of Spathularia ; 
softened and examined under the microscope I could find no exter- 
nal trace of hymenium, nothing but a tough cellular tissue of 
large and uniform cells, until at length, almost in despair, I cut 
open one of the specimens, and found the inner walls softer, 
rugose, and so different in texture that at once, more out of 
curiosity as to the character of the cells, than hope to find the 
hymenium, I examined a portion of the inner wall, and found it to 
consist entirely of an effused hymenium of large, closely-packed, 
cylindrical asci, each containing its eight elliptical sporidia, but 
without paraphyses. In fact here is an inflated fleshy sac, with the 
hymenium enclosed and covering the whole of the inner surface. It 
is a Spathularia turned inside out, and is of far more importance to 
us than a mere new species or a new genus could be, presenting 
to those who are acquainted with the structure of the Discomycetes 
a most interesting subject for study and reflection, adding yet 
another to the contrarieties of the antipodes. 
It may not be out of place to allude to the affinities which this 
