i60 NEW OH CEITICAL FUNGI. spores were elliptical, placed it in the genus Mitrula, without, how- ever, giving a diagnosis, but simply stating, '* Sporidia elliptic uniseriate." As the fungus under consideration is neither a Spnthu- laiia nor a Mitrula^ neither does it accord with any liitherto defined genus; it is named after its discoverer, one of the pioneers of N. American botany. Spragueola americana Mass. (PL 357, figs. 8 & 9). Asco- phore subglobose, 1-1*5 cm. broad and high, upper surface coarsely nodulose or lobed, glabrous, everywhere pale ochraceous-tan (when dry), fleshy and solid, internally white ; asci narrowly cylindric- clavate, apex slightly truncate, the pore becoming blue with iodine, straight, 70-75 X 5-6 /x; spores 8, obliquely 1-seriate, continuous, hyaline, smooth, elliptical, ends obtuse, 6-5-7 X 3-5 /a ; paraphyses septate, slender, clavate, about 3 fx thick at the apex ; excipulum formed of branched hyphse about 2 5 /x thick and very densely inter- woven ; these become thicker, up to 5 /x, much branched, aseptate, and more loosely interwoven to form the central portion of the ascophore. Mitrula crispata Fr. ; Berkeley in Notices of N. Amer. Fung, no. 704'% in Grev. iii. 142 (1875). On the ground, amongst pine-leaves. New England (Sprague, no. 6758). Geoglossum lignicolum Mass. (PI. 357, figs. 19 & 20). Gre- garious, growing on decayed wood, 4-5 cm. high, entirely black with a purple tinge ; upper half clavate, round or compressed, glabrous and covered by the hymenium, about 3 mm. thick; lower half forming the stem sterile, minutely velvety, equal, usually crooked, slender ; asci clavate, apex rounded and tinged deep blue with iodine, often curved, 150 x 15 /x; spores linear-clavate, apex thickest, brown, translucent, usually very slightly curved, 7-septate, arranged in a parallel fascicle in the ascus, 8 in number; para- physes straight, clavate, septate, apex tinged olive and about 6 /x thick. Growing on rotten wood along with the type specimen of Mitrula vinom Berk., which it much resembles superficially. Tas- mania {Archer). Distinguished by the violet- black colour, and in growing on wood. Geoglossum australe has much longer spores. Hypocrella ochracea Mass. (PI. 357, figs. 10-13). Hypo- phyllous or very rarely epiphyllous, gregarious or scattered ; stroma at first subglobose and often slightly constricted at the base, hemi- spherico-depressed and surrounded by a thin border at maturity, 3-5 mm. diameter, pale ochraceous or sometimes almost white, firm, glabrous, internally white and composed of slender, densely interwoven hyphae, fixed by a slender central point ; perithecia rather scanty, immersed, broadly ovate, ostiola indicated externally by a minute pore; asci cylindric- fusiform, apex slightly capitate, narrowed below into a long pedicel, usually curved, not coloured blue with iodine, 250-300 x 13-15 /x ; spores arranged m a parallel fascicle which is slightly twisted on its axis, hyaline, linear, ends
