46 
JOURNAL OF MYCOLOGY. 
[VOL. II, 
inch or more in the soft mud where they chanced to fall, and into whicli,. 
from their own weight, they would naturally sink. Here, again, we tind 
the stem of the little parasite with an oblique, or tortuous base, from 
having to force its way through the overlying mud filled with decaying 
twigs and leaves that oppose its passage; but, on reaching the surface, 
it shoots up erect and straight to about the same height as the two 
already mentioned. The terminal disk, however, is rather thicker and 
has a decided tinge of flesh color. This species also appears later in the 
season (September to October), which fact, together with its different 
habitat and more robust growth, will readily distinguish it. How this 
remarkable 'parasite establishes itself in the nutlets of the gum tree is 
even more difficult to comprehend than in the case of the first-mentioned 
species, for the growth is not superficial, the stem of the Peziza issuing 
from the kernel of the fruit, whose bony envelope is cracked to admit 
its passage. 
If the parasite reached maturity in the early part of the season, 
while the gum tree was still in blossom, we might imagine its sporidia 
floating in the air, to find lodgment on the stigma of the flower, though, 
in the single locality where it has as yet been found, the lowest branches 
on the single tree, from which the nutlets evidently fell, are at least 
twenty feet above the ground. We can only suppose, then, that the 
sporidia fall on the mature fruit, either while it is yet hanging on the 
tree or after it has fallen to the ground and, germinating, produce a my¬ 
celium which penetrates to the kernel within. 
Other allied species have been described. F. Curreiana, a European 
species, grows from a sqlerotium developed in the culms of Juncus effu- 
sus and J. conglomeratus, and also in culms of Sdrpus lacustris. This 
is described as a very beautiful species, with dark-colored, very smooth 
hemispherical cups, which at length become funnel-shaped, 8—12millim. 
across, borne on round, solid, subflexuous stems, 15-—20 millim. long. 
The affected culms crack open in the spring, at the place where the scle- 
rotium is formed, and from the cleft issue several (2—12) specimens of 
the Peziza, all from the same sclerotium. It is noted that, the greater 
the number of specimens, the smaller their size, and this also is the case 
with P. gracilipes. Occasionally, a Magnolia petal will be found perfect¬ 
ly mottled with small sclerotia, each of which produces one or more 
small Pezizas. 
Another species [P. Diirimana) is charmingly described by Tulasne 
in ‘‘Selecta Pungorum Carpologia.'’ This species was tirst found by 
Durieu, in 1856, near the banks of the Garonne, in France. It arises 
from a sclerotium in the culms of Carex arenaria and comes to maturity 
in the latter part of June. The sclerotium is formed in the culms of the 
sedge, during the summer, but in the fall, the culms split open from the 
pressure of the included sclerotium, which then falls out and lies on the 
ground through the winter, ready, when summer returns, to mature its 
fruit. In tlie locality where it was first found, this parasite was so 
