British Gastromycetes. 
3i 
HYMENOGASTREAE. 
Peridium indehiscent ; gleba broken up by septa into 
numerous irregular cavities ; capillitium absent ; subterranean. 
Hymenogastreae , Tub, FI. d’Algerie, i, p. 394. 
Hymenogastrei , Tub, Fung. Hypog. p. 61. 
Hypogaei , Berk., Outl. p. 292. 
OCTAVIANIA, Vitt. 
Peridium continuous or cracked, cottony, running down 
into a well-developed sterile base ; trama byssoid, easily divi- 
sible ; cells at first empty, peripheral ones small, spherical, 
central ones much larger and irregular, spores rough. 
Octaviania , Vitt., Mon. Tub. p. 15 (in part) ; Corda, Ic. 
Fung, v, p. 26 ; Fr. Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 436 ; Sacc. Sylh vii, 
p. 158. 
Distinguished from Hydnangium by the presence of a 
sterile basal stratum, and from Melanogaster in the cavities of 
the gleba being at first empty, and the septa byssoid. 
Octaviania asterosperma, Vitt. (Fig. 2). Globose or 
irregular, dirty-white, then aeruginous-blue or black in parts, 
sterile base thickish, cells irregular, central ones largest ; 
spores globose, coarsely echinulate, brown, 14-1 5 /x diam. 
Octaviania asterosperma , Vitt., Mon. Tub. 17, t. iii, f. 7 ; 
Tub, Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, xix, p. 276, PI. xvii, f. 21 ; Tub, 
Fung. Hypog. 77, t. xi, f. 1 ; Corda, Ic. Fung, vi, t. vii, f. 64 ; 
Berk., Outl. 292 ; Cke., Hdbk. n. 1045 ; Wint., Kr. FI. 878 ; 
Sacc. Syll. vii, p. 159. 
Lyndhurst ! Bristol ! Chudleigh ! Bowood ! — Europe ; N. 
Africa. 
From §-i| in. across, globose or irregular, mycelium abun- 
dant, adhering to twigs or leaves underground. Peridium 
continuous or cracked into areolae, minutely downy, whitish, 
changing to greenish-blue or black when touched and exposed 
to the air. 
Octaviania Stephensii (Berk.), Tub (Fig. 3). Irregular, ob- 
long, externally rufous, base rugoso-plicate, cribrous, furnished 
