333 
MR. G. MASS EE OX GASTEROLICHEXE8. 
similar thread from another cell, the two forming a common stem, on which several 
pairs of cells are supported on similar lateral bifurcating threads. These pairs of cells 
originate from the fission of a single cell, each half of the parent cell giving origin to 
a green filament, the bifurcation of which is at first included in the cell-wall. The 
alga occupies interspaces in the loose peripheral portion of the base of the fungus, and 
also passes up into the loose texture of the peridium, giving the yellowish-green tint 
to every external part of the plant before dehiscence. The tips of lateral branches of 
hyphse are frequently seen closely investing and even penetrating the algal cells. 
Trichoconia paradoxa, Jungh., is the type of a second genus of Gasterolichzn.es. This 
plant was first discovered by Junghuhn in Java, and was described as a fungus/"' 
its very anomalous structure causing the author much uncertainty in referring it to 
any of the known divisions of Fungi. Finally it was placed in the Hyphomycetes, on 
account of some resemblance to such compact forms as Stilbum. Montagxet after¬ 
wards considered it as having more affinity with the Gasteromycetes, in which family 
it has up to the present remained. 
In habit the plant is gregarious, growing horizontally on decayed trunks or branches, 
in shape more or less cylindrical, and varying from three quarters to an inch and a 
half in height, by half an inch or more in diameter. The sterile basal portion is cup¬ 
shaped, and consists of thick-walled, eseptate, much-branched hyphse, compacted into 
a dense pseudo-parenchymatous tissue. From the margin of this cup the hyphse pass 
upwards and form a loose membranaceous peridium. The capillitium arises from the 
sterile basal portion, and consists of erect branched threads tapering upwards and 
compacted into a cylindrical tuft, which after the disappearance of the evanescent 
peridium resembles a camel’s-hair brush springing from the cup-like base. In young- 
specimens traces of the reproductive hyphse may sometimes be met w r ith, bearing 
basidia and sterigmata, proving the spores to be true basidiospores, as in Lycoperdon. 
The spores are brown, tinged with purple, in the mass, elliptical and coarsely warted, 
measuring about Gy X 3y. The alga belongs to Kutzing’s genus Botryococcus , and 
forms a stratum at the base of the capillitium. In the dry plant this layer is bright- 
yellow, but the alga becomes green when moistened, especially if a small quantity of 
potassic hydrate is added to the water. The colonies vary in size, measuring on an 
average 25/x, and are generally invested with hyphse, which in the “ gonidial layer ” 
assume a yellow tinge. 
In addition to the locality given above, this species is represented in the Kew 
Herbarium from Sikkim, East Nepaul, Nilgiris, and Ceylon. 
A smaller plant, included with T. paradoxa in the Kew Herbarium collection, proves 
on examination to be a new species, characterised as follows :— 
Trichocoma Icsvispora. Keceptaculum basilare rotundato-cupulatmn. Flocci elon- 
gati, .comosi, in capitulum cylindricum persistens collecti, sporidiis subglobosis, lsevibus, 
* ‘ Verliand. van Get Batav. Genootsch. van Kunsten en Wetensch.,’ Batav., 1839. 
t “ Ci-yptogames de Java,” ‘ Ann. Sci. Nat. (Hot.),' vol. 16, 1841. p. 308. 
