Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/167

145 NEW OR CRITICAL FUNGI. By George Masses, F.L.S., F.R.M'.S. (Plate 357.) Clypeum, nov. gen. (PI. 357, figs. 1-3). Perithecia discoid, applanate, fixed to the substratum by a small point ; central portion umbonate, sterile; peripheral part with numerous radial ridges, each ridge is structurally an elongated perithecium, de- hiscing by a narrow, persistently closed slit running its entire length; asci cylindric-clavate, 8-spored; spores irregularly 2-seriate, hyaline, smooth, 1-septate, elliptical; paraphyses numerous, septate. A very remarkable genus without close affinities ; superficially somewhat resembling Actidium, but differing in the perithecium consisting of an applanate circular disc attached by a central point. The central portion of the upper surface is slightly umbonate and sterile ; the remainder consisting of radiating ridges which some- times fork near the margin. Each ridge corresponds in structure to the simple perithecium in such genera as Hysterium, hence the present may in a sense be considered a compound structure, as in Eutypa or HyiDoxyhm. The lips of the perithecia (forming the radial ridges), and the stroma connecting the same, consist of brown, stout, thick- walled, interwoven hyphae. The present genus is certainly the most highly evolved of any included in the Hysteriacem. There are certain superficial points of resemblance with certain genera included in the Microthyriacecp., but the present differs essentially from all in the perithecia dehiscing by a narrow, elongated slit, which does not open and expose the disc at maturity. Clypeum peltatum Mass. (PI. 357, figs. 1-3). Perithecia epiphyllous, orbicular, plane, gregarious or crowded and over- lapping, black, somewhat membranaceous, fixed by a central point ; perithecia forming ridges radiating from a central, sterile portion, 2-3 mm. diameter ; asci cylindric-clavate, 8-spored, 100-110 X 14-15 /x; spores irregularly 2-seriate, hyaline, smooth, elliptic-clavate, 1-septate, upper cell slightly largest, 15 x 8-9 /a; paraphyses numerous, septate, sometimes branched, slightly thick- ened at the olive-brown tips, which are 4-5 /x thick. Crowded and nearly covering the upper surface of some un- determined coriaceous leaf. Napier ; New Zealand (Colenso). When seen under a lens, the perithecia closely resemble the pileus of Coininus plicatilis. Dasyscypha trabinelloides Mass. (PI. 357, fig. 4). Gre- garious or sometimes crowded, sessile, at first globose and closed, then expanding, becoming again contracted when dry, entirely orange-coloured, 0- 5-1 -5 mm. diameter; substance thin and soft; excipulum formed of radiately parallel, septate hyphae about 4-5 fx thick; externally pubescent, the hairs often arranged in groupa, septate, cylindrical, obtuse, minutely rough, overtopping the entire JouRNAi, OF Botany. — Vol. 34. [April, 1896.] l