248 Mas see— A Monograph of the Geoglosseae. 
The specific characteristics of the present species are : the dry, 
black ascophore, distinctly clavate spores, very slightly constricted at 
the septa, and the paraphyses becoming clavate upwards, where the 
septa are rather close together and constricted, giving a moniliform 
appearance ; in some specimens, however, the septa are rather distant 
from each other near the apex of the paraphyses, which are not so 
strongly moniliform, whereas in others this appearance is altogether 
lost, and every transition may often be seen, even in the same 
specimen, from one extreme of paraphysis type to the other. The 
most constant feature of the species is the distinctly clavate form of 
the spores. 
The above specific diagnosis is drawn up from a specimen in the 
Kew Herbarium called Geoglossum glabrum by Persoon himself ; 
hence we are certain that we are so far correct. The specimens in all 
the exsiccati quoted have been examined, and agree with Persoon's 
fungus. I cannot accept Saccardo’s decision that Persoon’s fungus 
is synonymous with Clavaria ophioglossoides , Linn. The diagnosis 
of this species by Linnaeus (Sp. PL, ed. i, vol. ii, p. 1182, 1753) is 
as follows : ‘ Clavata integerrima compressa obtusa/ and this I con- 
sider as inadequate. I have gone through the Herbarium of Linnaeus, 
and find nothing to support Saccardo’s idea. The fact that Bulliard, 
Bolton, and others have called a species ophioglossoides proves nothing ; 
in many cases, in the absence of specimens, we do not know what 
species, as at present understood, these authors had in view. On the 
other hand, where the name ophioglossoides (Linn.) is used in exsiccati, 
we find that it covers several species, including the hyaline spored 
Mitrula microspora of the present work, as in Desm., Crypt. France, 
s 6 r. 1, n. 421. Finally, Schmidel (Icon. Plant. 92, 1762) considers 
that the fungus Linnaeus had in view was Schmidefs Clavaria simplex 
hirsuta (=G. hirsulum, Pers.). 
Form difforme. 
Ascigerous portion often bent or irregular in form, compressed, 
obtuse, slightly viscid when moist ; paraphyses septate, apex slightly 
thickened and often more or less swollen below the septa, curved 
or slightly wavy. 
Syn. — Geoglossum difforme , Fries, Obs. Myc. i, 159, 1815; Cooke, 
Mycogr. 6, fig. 7, 1875 ; Sacc., Syll. viii, n. 143, 1889; Massee, Brit. 
Fung.-Flora, iv, 492, 1895 ; Rehm, Kr.-Fl. n. 5873, 1896. 
