B ay liss- Elliott and Grove. — Roesleria pallida , Sacc. 409 
it were concluded that Pilacre faginea and P. Petersii were also identical 
with each other, and that both resembled the Roesleria so much in character 
as to make it seem not unlikely that Pilacre is only a stage of Roesleria . 
Experiments with a view to test this latter point are being set on foot, and 
we wish at present merely to record our belief in the truth of that 
statement. 
Again, it was not possible to find any confirmation of Brefeld’s 
contention that Pilacre is a Protobasidiomycete : nothing could be seen 
resembling his drawings of basidia (Untersuch., 1 888, Heft vii, Pl. I). The 
spores grew exactly as he represents them, but uniform ‘ basidia ’ were not 
present, merely branches of the conidiophore (Fig. 10). The conclusion at 
which we have arrived is that Pilacre is a conidiophorous fungus, not 
in any sense a Basidiomycete, and that it is not in the remotest degree 
allied to the Auricularieae and Tremellineae, but is a stage of the 
Discomycetous genus Roesleria. They differ chiefly, as regards external 
appearance, in the usually stouter and shorter stem and larger head of 
Pilacre. It is well known that to give the latter name at first sight 
to a Roesleria is not at all an uncommon incident even among expert 
mycologists. 1 
The form and stature are similar in all these four species of Pilacre and 
Roesleria : the mode of occurrence is the same, the texture of the head and 
of the stem are the same, the manner of production of the spores between 
the convex upper surface of the head and a pseudo-peridium is also the 
same, the sole difference being in the exact form and colour of the spores, 
and their origin in asci or not. There are, of course, many Discomycetes 
which are known to have conidial stages, although no close parallel can 
be cited to the combination here advocated. 
The description of our specimens is as follows : 
Roesleria pallida. 
Apothecia at first greyish, somewhat pruinose, fawn-coloured when 
old, gregarious or in little clusters, 1-4 mm. high (including the stem, which 
is whitish, becoming yellowish, then darker, mm. thick) : head varying 
in diameter, sometimes not much wider than the stem, at others up to 1 mm. 
wide. Asci subcylindrical when young, cylindrical when mature, 28-33 x 
5-6 [i (part sporifer.), on a short pedicel, 8-spored. Spores monostichous, 
1 Pilacre Friesii and P. subterranea Weinmann have proved to be ascophorous and = R. pallida. 
No doubt these occurrences are due to the great elusiveness of the asci, a good view of which we 
find can only be obtained by brushing away the free ascospores and the tangle of paraphyses, lying 
loosely over the hymenial disc, before cutting or teasing it for microscopical examination. Even in 
microtome sections of material carefully fixed and prepared, the asci do not stand out so clearly as 
when treated in the way indicated above. Whether the asci can be seen or not, however, the two 
form-genera can be distinguished with ease at once by the shape and colour of the spores : there is 
now no reason why they should ever be confused. 
F f 2 
