38 Mas see. — A Monograph of 
n. 1050 ; Sacc., Syll. vii, p. 1 56 (Type in Herb. Berk. Kew, 
n, 4447 )- 
Clifton! King’s Cliffe ! 
Above \-i inch across, gregarious, sometimes confluent, 
snow-white, downy, seated on a white, flat, branched mycelium 
which penetrates deeply into the clayey soil, and is attached 
at various points to the peridium ; peridium firm, elastic, easily 
separating from the fructifying mass, but in the process of 
drying in young plants adhering closely to it, in older plants 
often separating entirely ; when rubbed or cut contracting 
sometimes a pale rufous tinge ; substance firm, cartilagineo- 
glutinous, proceeding from the base and radiating into the 
mass, the arrangement of which has a strong resemblance to 
that of a kidney, of a pale blue or grey, which in parts exhibits 
a green tinge from the subjacent spores ; in very young speci- 
mens, before the spores are formed, there is not the slightest 
blue tinge, but a very pale pink ; cells irregular, minute, some- 
times straight and radiating, clothed with very pale argillaceous 
oblong spores, and emitting from their walls irregular threads 
which either terminate abruptly or cross over to the opposite 
wall. As the plant dries, the blue, and consequently the green, 
tint, vanishes almost entirely, and the mass is of a very pale 
clay-colour from the spores. The central mass contracts 
extremely, and the outer surface becomes more or less irregular. 
Smell scarcely any at first, then like that of some Hypericum, 
at length precisely like that of a decaying puff-ball. If the 
fungus is cut exactly through the centre, the arrangement of 
its tissue is seen distinctly to proceed from the base. This 
species is doubtless extremely near to H. pompholyx, of which 
I have specimens from Messrs. Tulasne, but it is larger; the 
peridium is firm, and in old specimens does not contract 
together with the central mass ; the spores not rose-coloured, 
and perhaps rather larger. (M. J. B., 1 . c.) 
Hysterangium Thwaitesii, B. and Br. (Fig. 80). Subglobose, 
white, becoming rufous when touched, peridium membran- 
aceous ; spores oblong, apiculate, pale olive, 25-30 x 7-9 ^ . 
