Mr Greville on a New Germs of Plants. £57 
merits. It is here that the plants range, of which I am about 
to speak. 
Persoon, in his Synopsis Fungorum , has thrown together, 
under the genus Scleroderma , several ' very anomalous species, 
especially the three first. Sclerod. pistillare , he probably had no 
opportunity of dissecting, or he must have perceived its pecu- 
liar structure. I have recently, however, had the satisfaction 
of examining this curious plant, through the liberality of my 
friend Dr Grahame, Professor of Botany in the University of 
Edinburgh, to whom specimens were communicated by Mr 
White of Madras. The very remarkable character of the 
stem passing through the peridium to its very summit, suffices 
at once to remove it from Scleroderma ; but another equally 
striking peculiarity is the dehiscence at the base of the peri- 
dium, a circumstance which Persoon himself notices, as be- 
longing to his Sclerod. carcinomale. This species also, I have 
no doubt, ought to be separated along with Sclerod. pistillare , 
as it has the same general form, and a cylindrical stem, added 
to the peculiar dehiscence. Persoon does not appear to have 
seen it, and from the loose and brief manner in which he has 
noticed it, a doubt even exists whether it may not prove the 
same as the other, an idea the localities rather tend to confirm. 
I have, however, never seen the latter species, and can only 
judge of its affinity from Persoon's description. In the dispo- 
sition of the filaments within the peridium, Sclerod. pistillare 
differs materially from the rest of the genus. They arise from 
the percurrent stem, and pass in a straight horizontal line to the 
outer wall or peridium, to which, however, they are scarcely 
attached ; among these filaments the sporules" are profusely scat- 
tered. Perhaps by “ fibris rectis ” Persoon intends to express 
the same character in Sclerod. carcinomale. 
Of these two plants, therefore, so remarkable in their exter- 
nal form, and more so in their internal structure, I propose to 
constitute a distinct genus, which I shall name Schweinitzia, 
in honour of the excellent mycologist Schweiniz, one of the au- 
thors of the Conspectus Fungorum in Lusatice superioris Agra 
Niskiensi crescentium. 
it 
VOL. V [IT. NO, 16. APRIL 18£3, 
