Mccssee . — A Monograph of the Geoglosseae. 259 
VlBRlSSEA, Fries, emend. 
Stipitate, vertical; ascigerous portion pileate, horizontal, margin 
thick, incurved towards the stem, upper surface fertile, under surface 
sterile, glabrous ; stem simple, central Asci narrowly elongato- 
clavate, apex narrowed, pore not blue with iodine ; spores 8, needle- 
shaped, hyaline, multiguttulate, sometimes becoming multiseptate, 
arranged in a parallel fascicle in the ascus ; paraphyses very slender, 
sometimes branched and the tips curved, septate. 
Vibrissea, Fries, Syst. Myc. ii, 31, 1823. 
Leotia , Hill, Hist. PI. 43, 1751, in part. 
Cudonia , Fries, Summa Veg. Scand. 348, 1846, in part. 
Helotium of old authors, in part. 
Superficially resembling Leotia in the ascigerous portion or pileus 
being horizontal or pileate, with a free, incurved margin, and in 
having an elongated stem, but differing in having needle-shaped spores 
arranged in a parallel fascicle in the ascus. Several sessile or sub- 
sessile species that have been included in the present genus by 
different authors, are here excluded on account of the presence of 
a more or less distinctly parenchymatous cortex, and absence of the 
characteristic margin incurved towards the stem. V. truncorum is 
a truly aquatic fungus, and at maturity the needle-shaped spores escape 
partly from the asci and vibrate in the water, hence the generic name. 
Distr . — A small genus containing four well-defined species confined 
to the North Temperate Zone. V. truncorum and V. circinans occur 
in Europe and the United States; V. lutea and V. ochroleuca are 
confined to the last-named country. Of the two doubtful species, 
V. vermicularis is recorded from European Russia, and V. rimarum 
from Kamtschatka. 
Key to the Species. 
I. Stem minutely velvety or squamulose. 
truncorum. Pileus deep orange-red. 
II. Stem glabrous. 
circinans. Pileus pale yellowish flesh-colour, under surface 
wrinkled, the ridges running down the apex of the stem, 
lutea. Pileus and stem yellow, 
ochroleuca. Pileus ochraceous-white ; stem white. 
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