new or interesting british microfungi

New or Interesting British MicrofungiAuthor(s): R. W. G. DennisSource: Kew Bulletin, Vol. 25, No. 2 (1971), pp. 335-374Published by: Springer on behalf of Royal Botanic Gardens, KewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4103238 .

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New or interesting British Microfungi R. W. G. DENNIS

It seems desirable to place on record some of the more interesting collections of British microfungi received at Kew in recent years.

Melanotaenium hypogaeum (Tul.) Schellenberg, Die Brandpilze der Schweiz: Io8 (1911).

Ainsworth & Sampson (1950) were unable to trace the British material of this species recorded in Grevillea 13: 52 (1884). Part of it came to light in a box of unnamed British fungi transferred to Kew from the British Museum in 1969, namely Fungus on roots of Linaria spuria, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 1869, J. Lowe. Fig. I.

Apparently the fungus has not been reported subsequently from the British Isles.

FIG. I. Melanotaenium hypogaeum. Habit sketch, x I; spores, x 66o; from the British collection.

FIG. 2. Entyloma chrysosplenii. Habit sketch, x I; spores, x 66o; from the type.

Entyloma chrysosplenii (Berk. & Br.) Schroet. in C6hn's Beitr. Biol. Pflanz. 2: 372 (1877).

Protomyces chrysosplenii Berk. & Br. in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, 15: 36 (1875).

Ainsworth & Sampson (1950) could not trace the type or other British material. It has now come to light amongst unnamed material of Protomyces from the Broome herbarium, now transferred from the British Museum to Kew. The white spots on the infected leaves are very conspicuous, up to 5 mm. diameter, so it is odd the fungus has not been collected more often. The chlamydospores are a little angular, 10-12 x 9-Io0L. Fig. 2. There is one later collection, near Fern, Angus, 1876, J. F[erguson].

Entyloma crastophilum Sacc. in Michelia I: 540 (1879). E. holci Liro, Die Ustilagineen Finlands 2: 97 (1938).

This was recorded on Holcus from Zetland in 1954 but it is not confined to the north as the following collections indicate:

335



336 KEW BULLETIN VOL. 25(2)

Devon, Lundy Island, on Holcus, Io Aug. 1965; Herefordshire, Penyard Hill, Ross on Wye, on Holcus, 9 Aug. 1969; Gloucestershire, Marlwood hill, Thornbury, on Agrostis, 7 Aug. 1965-

Entyloma fergussonii (Berk. & Br.) Plowr., Brit. Ured. & Ustil.: 289 (1889). E. canescens Schroet. in Cdhn's Beitr. Biol Pflanz. 2: 436 (1877). E. serotinum Schroet., op. cit.: 439 (1877).

This is a common leaf-spotting smut fungus on species of Myosotis. The race on Symphytum, called E. serotinum by Schroeter but only physiologically distinct from E. fergussonii according to later authors, has not hitherto been recorded from Britain. It is therefore worth noting the following collection: On Symphytum officinale, Axminster, Devon, Sept. 1968. Fig. 3-

The brownish chlamydospores measure 12-14 x 10-12 p and the acicular

sporidia up to 47 x 15t.-

FIG. 3. Entylomafergussoni on Symphytum. Habit sketch, x s; spores, x 66o.

FIG. 4. Left: Entorrhiza digitata. Right: E. aschersoniana. Habit sketches, x I; spores, x 66o.

Thecaphora seminis-convolvuli (Desm.) S. Ito

To the county records in Kew Bull. 16: 251-252 (1962) can now be added

Berkshire, on Calystegia sepium, Swinley Park, Windsor Great Park, 23 Aug. 1967; Buckinghamshire, on C. sepium, George Green, 5 Aug. 1967 & on Convolvulus arvensis, Langley Marsh, 5 Aug. 1967; Caernarvonshire, on C.

sepium, near Trefriw, on the path to Llanrwst suspension bridge, 17 Aug. 1969; North Cornwall, on C. arvensis, Tintagel, 30 Aug. 1968; Herefordshire, on C. sepium, Pembridge, 21 Sept. 1967; Hertfordshire, on C. sepium, Tring reservoirs, 28 July 1963; Kesteven, on C. sepium, Grantham, 28 July 1967 & on C. arvensis between Bourne and Swinstead, 30 July 1967; West Somerset, on C. sepium, Crewkerne, 6 Oct. 1968; Surrey, on C. sepium x sylvatica, Dorking North Station, 12 Oct. 1962. Collections from north of the Humber would be welcome, the swollen and discoloured anthers of infected flowers are easily seen in the field.

Entorrhiza spp.

Ainsworth & Sampson (1950) had seen no British material and recorded E. aschersoniana (Magn.) Lagerh. on Juncus bufonius from Aberdeen on the



NEW OR INTERESTING BRITISH MICROFUNGI 337

strength of an old record by Trail, with a figure made from European material. There is a recent collection on the same host, Calgary, Isle of Mull, 30 July 1968, and also a collection of an Entorrhiza on roots of Juncus articulatus, Glen Cruaidh Choillie, Kinlochewe, West Ross, 23 Aug. 1963- The latter has forked tubers and more globose spores than the fungus on J. bufonius and is at present held as E. digitata Lagerh. Fig. 4. Many more collections and, if possible, cross-inoculation experiments are desirable, however, to evaluate the species proposed in this genus.

Puccinia physospermi Pass. apud Rabenhorst, Fungi Europaei 1969

(1875). Wilson & Henderson (1966) recorded the species as British on the evidence

of a collection on Physospermum cornubiense in the Grove herbarium, made at Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire, in 1932. It seemed desirable to confirm the presence of the fungus in England and to find if it persisted in this isolated station for the host, where the latter is thought to be only doubtfully native. Mr. J. E. Lousley kindly supplied me with a sketch map indicating precisely where the plant was to be found and a visit on 5 Aug. 1967 showed it to be still thriving there and to bear not only the rust but also a new Cercospora since described as C. physospermi Deighton. Specimens of the host so far examined from south-west England do not bear the Puccinia and it will be interesting to know whether the fungus does occur there. If it does not, its presence on the Buckinghamshire colony might be held to point to that having been established from infected plants imported from Europe.

Discina perlata (Fr.) Fr., Summa Veg. Scand., Sect. Post: 348 (1849)-

Peziza perlata Fr., Syst. Myc. I: 43 (1822).

FIG. 5. Discina perlata. Apothecium, x I; 3 ascospores, x 66o from the Dyce collection; above, 3 ascospores from the type of D. leucoxantha var. fulvescens for comparison.




When I wrote 'British Ascomycetes' in 1967 I still had not seen any British material of this distinctive vernal fungus of coniferous woods. On checking material transferred to Kew from the British Museum in i969, however, I discovered, under the name Peziza ancilis Pers., a collection clearly referable to D. perlata: 'On wet soil where a fir wood had stood, Dyce near Aberdeen, 26 Apr. 1888, J. W. H. Trail'. 'Fir' eighty years ago probably meant pine. Vernal fungi are often overlooked so the species may not be quite as rare in the Highlands as the absence of records might be held to indicate. Fig. 5, p. 337-

The equally rare D. leucoxantha Bres. var. fulvescens Rea is not only a different colour but has ascospores with a different shaped apiculus, as shown in the figure.

Peziza succosella (Le Gal & Romagn.) Moser in Gams, Kleine Krypto- gamenflora 2A: 96 (1963).

Galactinia succosella Le Gal & Romagn. in Rev. Mycol, sir. 2, 5: I 10 (1940).

According to its authors this close ally of Peziza succosa Berk. 's'en distingue essentiellement par la couleur de son lait qui devient nettement vert au contact de l'air et par ses spores. Si celles-ci peuvent presenter parfois une reelle analogie avec certaines spores des exemplaires immatures de G. succosa, elles se distinguent nettement des spores normalement evoluees du cette espece par: leur taille plus petite, leur forme souvent plus elliptique, leur ornamentation moins grossiere, non cristulee et de type pustuliforme'. The ascospore dimensions cited in the diagnosis are I5-I7.5(-I8) x 9-IIO[, without the ornament; the paraphyses are rather slender, up to 8tk wide, with brown contents. Collections on burnt ground are said to have a more purplish hymenium than those on unburned woodland soil. The following British collection apparently shows these features:

On burnt ground, Slindon, W. Sussex, 3 June 1969, C. H. Schofield.

Peziza succosa is the type-species of Galactinia (Cooke) Boudier and Le Gal & Romagnesi were therefore fully justified in referring their new species to that genus if it can be accepted as distinct from Peziza Dill. ex St. Amans. Most modern authors, including Le Gal, are agreed that such a distinction cannot be maintained but she rejects Peziza as a nomen confusum because of past differences of opinion regarding its typification. The problem has been discussed by Rifai (1968) and I agree with him, Eckblad, Korf and others that Peziza should be retained as a generic name, with P. vesiculosa Bull. ex St. Amans as type. When that is done G. succosella falls in Peziza as P. succosella (Le Gal & Romagn.) Moser.

Tricharina praecox (Karst.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Peziza praecox Karst. in Not. Sallsk, Fauna Flora Fennica 10: 124 (1869). Lachnea praecox (Karst.) Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 8: 183 (1889). Tricharia praecox (Karst.) Boud., Icon. Mycol. 2, Tab. 349, Livraison 30

(I910).

Apothecia gregarious, sessile, hemispherical, the lower portion commonly sunk in the ground, up to 5 mm. diameter; disc yellowish, sometimes with a




greenish tint, drying dark gray-brown, receptacle densely clothed with short brownish hairs. Asci cylindrical, 8-spored, up to 170 X I 4L; ascospores uniseriate, ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, 12-16 x 8-iotz, without guttules; paraphyses slender; hairs pointed, septate, up to 2o00 x 8u. Fig. 6.

On burnt ground, Ranmore, Surrey, growing with Anthracobia mauri- labra, A. melaloma and Peziza praetervisa, 22 May 1963-

FIG. 6. Tricharina praecox. Apothecium, x 5; hairs and ascus, x 660.

Because of the greenish tint of the fresh disc I suspect this may be the same as Neottiella microspora Cooke & Massee, the type of which has not been preserved. Tricharina Eckblad (1968) is a new name to replace Tricharia Boudier (1885), a later homonym of Tricharia F6e (1824).




Leucoscypha ricciae (Crouan) Dennis, comb. nov.

Peziza ricciae Crouan, Florule du Finistere: 54 (1867). Neotiella ricciae (Crouan) Le Gal in Rev. Mycol., sdr. 2, 18: 86

(i953). Patella ricciophila Seaver, North American Cup Fungi (Operculates): 165

(1928).

FIG. 7. Leucoscypha ricciae. Apothecium on Riccia thallus, x 30; hairs, ascus and paraphysis, x 66o.




Apothecia about - mm. diameter, superficial, sessile, with flat vermilion disc fringed by stiff white hairs; receptacle concolorous, saucer-shaped. Asci cylindrical, subsessile, 190 x 7/z, 8-spored, not blued by iodine, operculate; ascospores uniseriate, broadly elliptical, 21-24 x I3-I4p, with colourless, smooth, rather thick walls and a large central guttule; paraphyses cylindric- clavate, obtuse, straight, 5-6/t thick, contents blue-green in iodine; hairs simple, not rooting, tapered to a sharp point, septate, with rather thick, smooth hyaline walls, up to 225 X I1-15tL. Fig. 7, opposite.

On living thalli of Riccia sarcocarpa in barley stubble, Rockland St. Mary, Norfolk, 22 Nov. 1968, E. A. Ellis.

Rifai (1968) has recorded the species on Riccia sarcocarpa from Cornwall, it is otherwise known from the type-locality in Brittany, and from India and U.S.A. Rifai thought the species parasitic on or commensal with Hepaticae might deserve segregation as a separate genus but none has yet been proposed for this purpose and the structure of the apothecium is not very different from that of other species referred to Neottiella = Leucoscypha.

Aleuria cestrica (Ell. & Ev.) Seaver, North American Cup Fungi (Oper- culates): 98 (1928).

Peziza cestrica Ell. & Ev. in Journ. Mycol. I: 152 (I885). Humaria cestrica (Ell. & Ev.) Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 8: I33 (1889).

Apothecia up to 4 mm. diameter, sessile, shallow cupulate, deep yellow, margin even, without hairs. Asci cylindrical, 8-spored, not blued by iodine; ascospores elliptical, biguttulate, with a reticulate ornament comparable with that of A. aurantia, 7-2-8 x

4-5"'2, without the ornament, about

I Ix 6[ overall. Fig. 8, p. 342- Bare clay soil, Flexham Park, Little Bognor, Sussex, I Sept. 1969, D. A. Reid.

This may well be Peziza luteonitens Berk. & Br. var. josserandii Grelet in Bull. Soc. Bot. Centre Ouest: 37 (1939), but that is a nomen nudum as no latin diagnosis was provided by Grelet, who cited two French collections made in July and August respectively. Dr. Svrcek, who suggested the identification, tells me he has this American species also in Bohemia. According to Seaver Aleurina lloydiana Rehm from Ohio is also a synonym. Octospora pleurozii Eckblad seems similar but with slightly larger ascospores and a less reticulate ornament.

Ascobolus crenulatus P. Karst., Fungi Fennici Exs. 763 (1868). A. viridulus Phill. & Plowr. in Grevillea 8: 103 (i88o). A. microsporus Vel., Monogr. Discom. Bohem.: 365 (I934)-

As van Brummelen (1967) could cite only a single British collection, that of the type of A. viridulus, it is worth recording this beautiful little fungus for the first time from south-east England:

On rabbit-droppings collected at Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, Sussex, 18 Jan. 1970 and kept damp in the herbarium until 29 Jan. 1970. The Ascobolus followed a copious crop of Pilobolus crystallinus Tode and was followed by a crop of Coprinus velox Godey.




This species is easily recognized by its bright lemon apothecia about I mm. diameter, with minutely crenulate margin and smooth excipulum, and small ascospores, 1I1-14 x 6-7~t, in which the purplish-brown epispore is finely longitudinally cracked. Fig. 9.

Plectania melastoma (Sow. ex Fr.) Fuck. in Jahrb. Nass. Ver. Nat. 23/24: 324 (1870).

Peziza melastoma Sow. ex Fr., Syst. Myc. 2: 8o (1822). P. atrorufa Grev., Scottish Crypt. Flora 6, t. 315 (1828).

FIG. 8. Aleuria cestrica. Apothecia, x i; ascus, paraphysis and spores, x 66o.

FIG. 9.A scobolus crenulatus. Apothecium, x So; ascus and paraphyses, X 66o.




This striking Discomycete had not been received at Kew for so many years that one began to question its status as a living British fungus. Excellent material from Warwickshire, kindly forwarded by Mr. M. C. Clark, has shown that it is still with us and prompted a review of the evidence for its distribution in Britain. On a basis of recognizable figures and of collections in the combined herbaria of Kew and the British Museum this is as follows, with a concentration of relatively modern records in the Severn basin:

Midlothian: Auchindenny, Dr. Bainbridge (Greville, t. 315). Northumberland: Hexham, 'in upland shady woods about February and

March, frequent on the root of Erica vulgaris' (Sowerby, t. 149)- Denbighshire?: Plas Newydd, in Loniceram, Herb Berkeley, date illegible.

One of the seats, so called, in this county seems most likely to be intended, in view of his close association with Coed Coch, though there are others in Wales.

Shropshire: Linley, 27 May 1912, A. D. Cotton. Herefordshire: Whitfield, May 1875, W. Phillips. Worcestershire: 3 Apr. 1896; Trench woods, April 1904, C. Rea; Ockeridge

wood, 28 May 1912, C. Rea. Warwickshire: on Rosa arvensis, I km. west of Weethley Gate, 5 July 1969,

M. C. Clark. Gloucestershire?: Bristol, 18 Apr. I846 and Apr. 1847, C. E. Broome. Wiltshire: Charlton woods, 24 Jan. 1845, C. E. Broome. Somerset: near Portbury, 25 May 1847, C. E. Broome. Suffolk or Hertfordshire?: Bramfield, Sept. 1812. Pencil note on Kew the

example of Sowerby, t. 149. Middlesex: Bishops wood, Hampstead, Apr. 1863, M. C. Cooke. Essex: Epping, May I881, Mr. English. Sussex: Sp. Perceval, neither locality nor date.

All but the latest collections are in the period January to May, apart from that figured by Greville, which is vaguely assigned to 'Autumn'.

Ascocoryne solitaria (Rehm) Dennis, comb. nov.

Coryne solitaria Rehm apud Rabenhorst, Krypt. Fl., ed. 2, I(3): 488 (1891).

Apothecia solitary or in small clusters, turbinate, disc concave to flattened, up to I cm. across, light brown, drying black; receptacle smooth, concolorous; flesh differentiated into a brown hypothecium, thick colourless zone of slender hyaline hyphae sparsely interwoven in a gelatinous matrix and an ectal layer of brown, thin-walled, isodiametric cells, I 0-I12P, pore deep blue in Melzer's reagent, 8-spored; ascospores uniseriate or biseriate above, elliptic-cylindric, 9-15 x 3'5-4rL, often I-septate, occasionally 2 or 3- septate; paraphyses slender, unbranched, slightly enlarged up to 5t wide at the tip. Fig. Io, p. 344.

On dead wood, Knavehill Wood, Warwickshire, Nov. 1968, R. E. Evans 709.




FIG. Io. Ascocoryne solitaria. Apothecium, x I; diagrammatic section enlarged to show the distribution of tissues; ascus, paraphyses, spores and section of excipulum, x 66o.

FIG. I I. Sarcoleotia turficola. Apothecia, x i; ascus, paraphysis and spores, one germin- ating, x 66o.

In later years Rehm evidently lost faith in this species for in his unfinished revision of the Bavarian Discomycetes (in Ber. Bayer. Bot. Ges. 15: 251

(1915)), Coryne solitaria is reduced to synonymy under C. sarcoides and the type packet was similarly renamed in his herbarium, now at Stockholm. It

appears to me, however, to be a good species, distinguished from C. sarcoides

by its obtuse spores, brown excipulum and total lack of purple pigment. Christiansen, who has well described the fungus from Denmark (in Friesia

7: 81 (1962)) records budding of a few bacilliform conidia from ascospores in the ascus. Groves & Wilson (1967) have pointed out that the generic name

Coryne Nees ex S. F. Gray was based on an imperfect state and have accord-

ingly proposed a genus Ascocoryne to accommodate the perfect states commonly referred to Coryne. There seems no doubt Ascorcoryne sarcoides (S. F. Gray) Groves & Wilson and C. solitaria Rehm are congeneric, and I accordingly propose for the latter the name in Ascocoryne.




CORYNE TURFICOLA BOUD. AND OMBROPHILA VIOLACEA FR.

Sarcoleotia turficola (Boud.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Coryne turficola Boud. in Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 21: 71 (I905).

Coryne turficola Boud. was described as having turbinate apothecia with long tapering bases, vinous pink with an olive disc, and ascospores 18-22 X

5-6pL, growing in Sphagnum on the Jura, in August. 'La consistance est plus ou moins gelatineux suivant le degr6 d'humidit6 dans lequel elle a veget&'. According to the later description accompanying Planche 451 of Icones

mycologicae it was 'de consistance dlastique et gdlatineuse'. The fungus was redescribed by Favre in 1948 from the same area. He commented that the texture of the flesh changed with age, 'Receptacle de consistance ceracie a l'origine puis plus ou moins completement gdlifie' and, as one would expect, he found the ascospores smaller than stated by Boudier, namely 15-18 x

5-6-6-6/t. Several collections of what is evidently the same fungus have come to light

in British Sphagnum-bogs in recent years, though these have slightly smaller ascospores than those of Favre, I2-14 X 4-5ti. They show a flesh composed of broad, very thin-walled hyphae and a surface layer of short celled thin- walled hyphae about Io-20o wide. Between the rather thick ectal excipulum and the compact hypothecium is a zone where the hyphae are loosely interwoven, as in a gelatinized tissue. This does not, however, swell up when dried material is revived in ammonia, as does a truly gelatinized layer, and it seems there is in fact no gelatinized tissue such as occurs in Ascocoryne. Fig. II.

Clearly the above fungus is not an Ascocoryne and the British material, at least, because of its colouring and ascospore size, calls for comparison with Ombrophila violacea Fr. as described by Karsten, with ascospores I0-16 x 4-6pi.

According to von H6hnel, Fragmente 1070, the degree of gelatinization varies with age, 'Aber das innere Gewebe des Stieles und des Hypotheciums ist dtinnfaserig-plektenchymatisch, ohne Spur einer gelatin6sen Besch- affenheit. Es scheint, dass die Gelatine dem Pilze als Baustoff dient und schliesslich ganz verbraucht wird.' Von H6hnel was dealing with the var. limosella Karst., a small variety which grows on wet soil, whereas typical 0. violacea occurs in 'Locis udis umbrosissimis, saepe intra aquam, in ramulis et foliis putridis, raro supra terramin... mensibus Augusto et Septembri' according to Karsten. Neither the var. violacea nor the var. limosella were associated, like the British fungi, with Sphagnum, nor did they have the olivaceous tint to the disc. The long tapering stipe is another probable difference; 0. violacea has 'Stipes obconicus, brevis vel brevissimus'. Karsten thought his 0. violacea was the same as Peziza clavus and if it was the fungus so called by later authors it was completely non-gelatinous throughout.

Von Hohnel did not know the true O. violacea and only assumed that Karsten's variety limosella was conspecific with it. 'Karsten beschreibt die zwei Varietatenjanthina und limosella davon und ich zweifle nicht daran dass dieselben wirklich nur Formen der echten O. violacea Fries sind', and he




formed his opinion of the species from German material of the var. limosella. This was on a different substrate from the var. violacea sensu Karsten which grew in fact in just the situations we now find Cudoniella clavus. Fries, however had defined Ombrophila as 'Gelatina distentae, subtremulae' and distinguished his 0. violacea from Peziza clavus var. clavus. Ombrophila violacea was stated instead to correspond to P. clavus var. violascens Alb. & Schw., which was, 'Exacte obconica-tota amoene violacea, mollior, magis tremellosa . . . Ramulos deciduous, stipites, folia etc. incolit', on heaths in

Germany, September to October. This sounds too purple to have been either Cudoniella clavus or its var. grandis. Whatever may be the truth regarding the identity and synonymy of these old names, it appears that von H6hnel was right, if for the wrong reason, in stating that the name Ombrophila Fr. applies to fungi with a gelatinized flesh. The structure of Ombrophila violacea Fr. sensu von H6hnel has been admirably described and figured by Maas Geesteranus (1967). In that case neither Ombrophila nor Ascocoryne Groves & Wilson can accommodate Coryne turficola.

The structure of the latter compares well with that of Cudoniella clavus and the violaceous tint would not be out of place in Cudoniella either. Coryne turficola, however, has the ascus pore deeply blued by iodine, a character not shown by species at present referred to Cudoniella. A possible alternative genus for it is Sarcoleotia Imai, in which the anatomy of the receptacle is apparently similar and which has an iodine positive ascus pore. The type-species has septate ascospores and forked curved paraphyses, but rather than describe yet another monotypic genus of Helotiales I think Coryne turficola may be referred to Sarcoleotia (see Maas Geesteranus, 1966). There are the following British collections at Kew:

In running water with Sphagnum, Eriophorum and Juncus effusus, Black Ashop Moor, Kinder Scout, Derbyshire, 6 Sept. I959, up to 3 cm. diameter, J. T. Palmer; Coille na Glas Leitre, Kinlochewe, West. Ross, 12 Sept. 1963; in Sphagnum and Polytrichum, 6o m. below summit of Pikedaw Hill, Malham, Yorkshire, Grid. Ref. SD/884635, 6 Sept. 1969, Miss L R. Webster; in

Sphagnum, Flanders Moss, Stirlingshire, 13 Sept. 1969, J. T. Palmer; in Sphagnum recurvum, Carex rostrata etc., Ben Vrackie, Grid. Ref. NN/94862I, Sept. 1967, M. J. Liddle & S. J. Hutchinson.

Neobulgaria lilacina (Wulf. ex Fr.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Peziza lilacina Wulf. ex Fr., Syst. Myc. 2: 104 (1822).

Ombrophila lilacina (Wulf. ex Fr.) Karst., Mycologia Fennica I: 91 (1871).

Coryne lilacina (Wulf. ex Fr.) Boud., Hist. Class. Discom. d'Europe: 98 (1907).

Apothecia sessile, pulvinate, disc flat, 2 mm. diameter, light gray with a lilaceous tint; receptacle smooth, flesh gelatinous, with sparsely woven

hyphae in a colourless matrix, apart from a zone near the surface, where there is a band of large-celled parenchyma about 3 cells deep. Asci cylindric- clavate, about 70 x 6p, 8-spored, pore blued by Melzer's reagent; ascospores uniseriate, elliptical, hyaline, biguttulate, 6-8(-9) X 3-4,1; paraphyses slender, scarcely enlarged up to 2tL wide at the apex.




On decorticated wood, Clapham Woods, Yorkshire, 4 May 1963, W. D. Graddon 1643; on Populus, Vernon Park, Stockport, Cheshire, 13 Oct. 1963, J. T. Palmer 11867.

The anatomy is typical of Neobulgaria and in view of the uncertainty regarding the precise nature of the gelatinization in the type-species of Ombrophila it is as well to transfer this species. It must not be confused with Pachydisca lilacina (Bres.) Boud. which is Phaeohelotium lilacinum (Bres.) Dennis.

Ascotremella faginea (Peck) Seaver in Mycologia 22: 53 (1930).

Haematomycesfagineus Peck in Ann. Rep. New York State Mus. 43: 33 (1890). Neobulgariafaginea (Peck) Raitviir in Issledovanie Prirody Dal'nego Rostoka:

302 (1963). Haematomyces eximius Rick in Broteria 5: 28 (I 9o6).

I have formerly confused this curious, convolute, purplish-brown, highly gelatinized discomycete with Coryne foliacea Bres. The two can, however, easily be distinguished by the finely striate ascospores of Ascotremella, as was demonstrated to me by Sra. Irma Gamundi de Amos, see Gamundi & Dennis (1969). It seems also that Coryne foliacea is at most a variety of Neobulgaria pura. In the Parc Gibier, St. Hubert, Belgium, I had the pleasure of seeing N. pura growing in vast quantity on logs of Fagus, 27 Oct. 1969. There the convoluted state occurred in close proximity to the normal turbinate apothecia and it seems doubtful that it is worth rating as more than a form of the latter. In northern Europe N. pura and C.foliacea seem virtually restricted to Fagus whereas Ascotremella faginea grows on dead Angiosperm wood of all kinds. The figure of Neobulgariafoliacea in 'British Ascomycetes' t. 15/C is correctly named, but all collections cited in 'Revision of British Helotiaceae': 166 under N. foliacea should be referred to A. faginea. The following British material of the latter has been received at Kew:

West Dean Park, Goodwood, West Sussex, Aug. 1944, A. A. Pearson; 26 Jan. 1969, D. A. Reid; Tawstock, North Devon, 3 Sept. 1950, E. Wright; Hanger Wood, Bedford, 28 Sept. 1958, D. A. Reid; on Fagus, probably from Hamp- shire, 6 Sept. 1958, D. A. Reid; on Acer pseudoplatanus, Gwendale, Pickering, Yorkshire, 29 Oct. 1967, W. G. Bramley; Rousdon landslip, Lyme Regis, Dorset, 8 Nov. 1967, T. J. Wallace; on Sambucus, Killiecronan, Loch na Keil, Isle of Mull, 14 Aug. 1968; on Fagus, Edgehill, Warwickshire, 29 Sept. 1968, B. Brand.

Gorgoniceps boltonii (Phill.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Pocillum boltonii Phill. in Grevillea 16: 94 (1888). The fungus was adequately described by Phillips, who even indicated the

Helotiaceous character of the excipulum, 'composed of elongated septate threads', but was not figured by him. It was, however, well figured by O. Rostrup in Dansk Bot. Arkiv 2(5): 20 (I916), who also observed that the ascospore size given by Phillips did not cover the actual range. He found ascospores 60-90 x 4,L, becoming 2-septate, in 2 or 4-spored asci 72-11 0o x i4-i6E, on Equisetumfluviatile, S.

Fuglesangsoen, Denmark, May I9I5.




This is not a Pocillum but as the ascus pore is blued by iodine and the

excipulum is composed of short-prismatic thin-walled cells in vertical series it may reasonably be referred to Gorgoniceps. The type-collection was from near Sutton Coldfield, 28 Apr. 1887, with a later collection there 4 May 1887 and there is the following recent material at Kew: on dead stem of

Equisetum, Derwentwater, 28 May 1962, D. A. Reid. Fig. 12.

FIG. I2. Gorgoniceps boltonii. Apothecium, x Io; ascus, paraphysis, spore and portion of excipulum, x 66o.

FIG. 13. Encoelia fuckelii. Apothecia, X 20; ascus, paraphyses and spore, x 660.

Encoelia fuckelii Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia solitaria vel caespitose aggregata, erumpentia, sessilia, coriaceo-

membranacea, sicca compressa vel angulata, fusco-nigrescentia, pulvere albo tecta, latit. 2 mm., hymenio pallido. Asci cylindracei, longissime pedicellati, 50 X 31/, octospori, obturaculo jodo non coerulescente; ascosporae oblongae, 5 x 0-'5o; paraphyses filiformes, simplices, apice curvatae. Excipulum e textura angularis compositum, cellulis isodiametricis,

5-6t/ latis, membranis tenuibus, brunneis. Fig. 13-

In ramis Pruni spinosi demortuis, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, E. Sussex, 7 Apr. 1968, R. W. G. Dennis (typus, K).

The sooty brown receptacle is almost entirely concealed by a white pruina of granular mineral matter. Dr. Groves in lit. has suggested that it was this

fungus Fuckel (1871) described under the name Cenangium pulveraceum (A. & S.) Fr., on dead branches of Prunus insititia in Germany. The type of

Peziza pulveracea A. & S. was on bark of Betula and it is generally interpreted as a very different rather anomalous, Hyaloscyphaceous fungus, common on that substrate as well as on Ulex etc.




FIG. 14. Cenangiumjuniperi. Apothecium, x Io; ascus and section of margin, x 660.

Cenangium juniperi Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia solitaria, erumpentia, sessilia, cupulata, cinnamomeo- fuscescentia, subfarinacea, hymenio plano, lutescente pallido, I mm. diam. Asci cylindraceo-clavati, obtusissimi, basi abrupte et breviter attenuati, obturaculo jodo non coerulescentes, octospori, 105-140 x. I I-13tL; asco-

sporae monostichae, ellipsoideae, hyalinae, biguttulatae, 13 x 6"5-8k;

paraphyses filiformes, simplices, sursum incrassatae ad 3tL. Fig. 14, above.

Ad ramulos Juniperi communis, 2000 ft. [6oo m.], Beinn Eighe, West Ross, I3 Aug. 1963, R. W. G. Dennis (typus, K).

The ascospores resemble those of Velutarina rufo-olivacea (A. & S. ex Fr.) Korf but the excipular cells are globose to pyriform, lightly encrusted with a brown deposit, and interspersed with slender hyphae, not irregularly lobed as in Velutarina. No green cells have been seen and the asci seem iodine negative as in Cenangium. The receptacle is paler than in C. ferruginosum Fr. and the disc is not concealed by the inrolled margin as in dry apothecia of that species. Cenangium juniperinum Sacc. is a very different black fungus correctly referred to Tympanis as T. juniperinum (Sacc.) Sacc. according to Groves (1952). Cenangium deformatum Peck, reported on J. communis in North

America, is a synonym of Eutryblidiella sabina (de Not.) von H6hnel according to Pirozynski & Reid (1966).

M



350 KEW BULLETIN VOL. 25(2) SCLERODERRIS LAGERBERGII GREMMEN

This parasite of Picea and Pinus species in northern Europe, known as Scleroderris lagerbergii, was redescribed and figured by van Vloten & Gremmen (I953), who indicated it to be the ascogenous state of the pycnidial fungus Brunchorstia pinea (Karst.) von H6hnel, long known as a parasite of conifers in Britain. Groves (1965) has shown that both Crumenula de Notaris (1863) and Scleroderris Bonorden (1851), are to be treated as synonyms of Godronia Mougeot & L'veillh (1846). He excluded S. lagerbergii on the grounds that 'this fungus differs from Godronia in gross appearance, tissue structure, iodine reaction of the asci and more fusoid ascospores. There does not seem to be a satisfactory genus available for it, but it seems to me to be closer to Ascocalyx than to Godronia'. According to Groves Godronia is characterized by a dark medullary excipulum of textura angularis, covered especially on the flanks of the hymenium by an ectal layer of yellowish textura oblita. The ascus pore is blued by iodine. In S. lagerbergii the ascus pore is iodine negative and the receptacle is covered by a thin outer layer of polygonal to rounded cells, 6-i 5 diameter, with thin brown walls. Only at the margin does this pass into a zone of dark-brown parallel hyphae which tend to exceed and arch over the hymenium. Ascocalyx has iodine negative asci but the ectal excipulum is interpreted by Groves as composed of textura porrecta and there is a Bothrodiscus conidial state. Bothrodiscus and Brunchorstia are perhaps not so widely separated in the system of Fungi Imperfecti but in a recent paper Groves (1968) states categorically that in his view S. lagerbergii cannot be referred to Ascocalyx. In this he described two further species of Ascocalyx, each with an associated Bothrodiscus state. There seems therefore to be a case for separating S. lagerbergii, with its Brunchorstia conidial state in another genus and I accept a proposal by Professor James Reid to call this Lagerbergia.

Lagerbergia J. Reid, gen. nov.

Apothecia gregaria, erumpentia, subsuperficialia, stipite minuto innata cupulata, extus nigrobrunnea, sicca subatrata, margine involuta, fere clausa. Excipulum e textura angulari compositum, cellulis isodiametricis, rotundatis vel polyedricis, membranis intense brunneis, ad marginem versus texturam porrecta. Asci octospori, tenuitunicati, iodo adjuvante non coerulescentes. Ascosporae hyalinae, fusiformiter elongatae, septatae. Paraphyses filiformes, hyalinae. Brunchorstia Erikss. status conid. sistentes. Monotypus: Lagerbergia abietina (Lagerb.) J. Reid (Crumenula abietina Lagerb.).

Lagerbergia abietina (Lagerb.) J. Reid, comb. nov.

Crumenula abietina Lagerb. in Svenska Skogovardsforen Tidsk. 10: 204 (1913). Scleroderris abietina (Lagerb.) Gremmen in Acta Bot. Neerl. 2: 234 (1953),

non S. abietina Ell. & Ev. in Amer. Nat. 31: 427 (1897). S. lagerbergii Gremmen in Sydowia 9: 232 (I955)- Ascocalyx abietina (Lagerb.) Schlapfer in Sydowia 22: 44 (1969).

Apothecia about I mm. diameter, disc cream coloured, receptacle sooty brown, asci narrowly cylindric-clavate, IL0-I20

x 8-Io/; ascospores

biseriate, 15-22 X 3-4'5/z,

3-septate. Fig. I5.




On twigs of Corsican Pine, Pitfichie forest, Aberdeenshire, with the Brunchorstia state, Sept. 1962, S. J. Murray, comm. & det. S. Batko.

Van Vloten & Gremmen confirmed by culture the connection with the Brunchorstia pinea (Karst.) von Hohnel = B. destruens Eriksson which had been indicated by von H6hnel as long ago as I915 (Fragmente 939) yet the erroneous statement that this is a state of Cenangium ferruginosum still persists in literature, for example in Ainsworth & Bisby, 'Dictionary of the Fungi,' ed. 5 (196i). The pycnidia are dark brown, scarcely I mm. diameter, often clustered on a stromatic base, and contain short simple conidiophores bearing acicular, straight or curved, hyaline conidia, 25-45 x 3-4p, o-3-septate. The type host of Septoria pinea Karsten was Pinus sylvestris, in Finland. Though Brunchorstia has long been familiar to foresters it has largely been ignored by British mycologists and does not figure in either volume of Grove's Coelomycetes. There are the following British collections at Kew:

On Pinus austriaca, Raith, Kirkcaldy Fife, Apr. 1921, M. Wilson; on Pinus cembra, Penicuik, Midlothian, Jan. i923, M. Wilson; on Pinus montana, Glentress, Peebleshire, Feb. 1922, M. Wilson; on P. sylvestris, Grantown on Spey, Oct. I929, H. van Vloten; on P. montana, Harwood Dale, Wykeham, Yorkshire, I I Jan. 1960, S. Batko; on P. ponderosa Wareham, Dorset, 15 Apr. 1955; on Pinus sp., Haley forest, Northumberland, June 1945, M. F. Adams.

FIG. 15. Lagerbergia abietina. Apothecium, x 20o; ascus, paraphysis and spores, x 66o.

FIG. I6. Crumenulopsis sororia. Apothecia, x 2o; ascus and paraphysis, x 66o.

FIG. 17. Rutstroemia rhenana. Apothecium, x Io; ascus, paraphysis, spores and excipular hyphae, x 660.




Crumenulopsis sororia (Karst.) Groves in Canad. Journ. Botany 47: 50 (1969).

Crumenula sororia Karst. in Mycologia Fennica, Bidr. t. Kanned. Finl. Nat. Folk 19: 211 (1871).

Godronia sororia (Karst.) Karst. in Acta Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 2: 145 (1885). Apothecia scattered, erumpent then superficial, sessile, receptacle black

and finely furfuraceous, inrolled when dry, opening to expose the concave or flat pale olive disc I-2 mm. diameter when moist. Asci cylindric-clavate with short stout stipe, apex rounded and thin-walled, pore not blued by Melzer's

reagent, Ioo-I20 x lou, 8-spored; ascospores biseriate, fusoid, hyaline, mostly nonseptate, occasionally becoming I-septate, 15-20 x 3-4?/ (I3-30 x 511, occasionally up to 3-septate, van Vloten & Gremmen); paraphyses slender, filiform, enlarged up to 3,u wide at the tip but not forming an

epithecium. Excipulum of rounded cells up to Iop diameter, with thick walls, the interstices filled with opaque black intercellular deposit. Fig. 16, p. 351.

On canker of Pinus laricio, Ringwood, Hampshire, 3 May 1961, S. Batko; on cankered P. wallichiana, Crarae forest garden, Argyll, 20 May 1963, S. Batko; on P. nigra, Pitmedden forest, Fife, 22 May 1963, R. G. Pawsey.

Van Vloten & Gremmen obtained in ascospore cultures an excipulaceous conidial state with branched conidia, Digitosporium piniphilum Gremmen.

Rutstroemia rhenana (Kirschst.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Cenangium rhenanum Kirschst. in Ann. Mycol. 36: 371 (1938).

Apothecia scattered, erumpent, cupulate with a short stout stalk, receptacle dark reddish brown, surface fibrillose; disc concave, concolorous, 2-5 mm. diameter. Asci 120 x 7~L, 8-spored, pore not blued by Melzer's reagent; ascospores biseriate, elliptic-cylindric with rounded ends, often somewhat curved, 12-14 X

2-5-3"'5z, non-septate but with a cluster of granules near

each pole; paraphyses cylindrical, apical cell 4P wide, with brown contents. The surface of the receptacle consists of more or less parallel hyphae, 5-7LZ wide, with brown finely encrusted walls. Fig. 17, p. 351.

On branches of Malus sylvestris, Pickering, Yorkshire, 23 Oct. 1960, W. G.

Bramley 6 / 15 This is neither a Cenangium nor an Encoelia. The structure is suggestive of

Rutstroemia and, though one would like to know. if any stromatic tissue is formed in culture this genus will afford a better home for the species meantime.

Unguicularia incarnatina (Quil.) Nannf. in Nova Acta Reg. Soc. Sci.

Upsal., ser. 4, 8: 278 (1932).

Mollisia incarnatina QudI., Fungi Jura et Vosges, Suppl. 13: 9 (1884). Pseudohelotium incarnatinum (Qudl.) Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 8: 302 (1889). Urceolella incarnatina (Qudl.) Boud., Hist. Class. Discom. d'Europe: 13o

(I907).




When I published 'Revision of the British Hyaloscyphaceae' in 1949 I had seen no British material of this beautiful little species. The following collection is now available:

On Cirsium palustre, Scallastle Bay, Isle of Mull, 4 Aug. 1968.

Orbiliopsis von H6hn. This name, proposed by von H6hnel in 1926, was unfortunately a later

homonym of Orbiliopsis Sydow (1924). It was proposed to accommodate fungi with small superficial apothecia, with sessile, smooth, soft-fleshed receptacle, the light-coloured excipulum composed of isodiametric thin-walled cells. The asci are 8-spored with ascospores elliptic-cylindric, o-I-septate, hyaline and the paraphyses slender, simple or branched, not forming a coloured epithecium. The genus is easily distinguished from Mollisia by its lighter colours, predominantly cream, yellowish or pinkish, as well as by the excipular structure, but when several species are taken into consideration it seems impracticable to separate it from Phaeohelotium Kanouse. As the name indicates, the ascospores of the type-species of Phaeohelotium ultimately become brown, but this coloration develops very tardily and ascospore colour is a character of very doubtful value in the Helotiales, especially at generic level. I am accordingly taking this opportunity of transferring to Phaeohelotium most of the species of Orbiliopsis von H6hnel.

Phaeohelotium extumescens (Karst.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Peziza extumescens Karst. in Not. Sallsk. Fauna Flora Fennica 10: 177 (1869). Calloria extumescens (Karst.) Karst., Mycologia Fennica I: 97 (1871).

FIG. I8. Phaeohelotium extumescens. Apothecium, X 2o; margin in surface view and in section with ascus, paraphysis and spores, x 66o.

Apothecia gregarious, superficial, shallow-cup shaped, cream coloured, drying golden yellow, 0o3-o-5 mm. diameter, receptacle smooth. Asci cylindric-clavate, 40-50 x 6-8p, pore not distinctly blued by Melzer's reagent, 8-spored; ascsospores biseriate, elliptic-cylindric, often slightly curved, 8-i X

2"-5-3#P, with two large oil drops; paraphyses very slender.



354 KEW BULLETIN VOL. 25(2) The excipulum is formed of short prismatic cells in rows which pass towards the margin into slender, parallel, septate hyphae only 2tL wide. Fig. 18, P- 353-

On Eutypa on Fagus, Allerstone, Pickering, Yorkshire, 30 Oct. 1966, W. G. Bramley.

This collection matches the type 'supra lignum vetustum prope Mustiala, Finland', very closely. The broad marginal band of narrow parallel hyphae makes this a distinctive species, but apparently does not sharply differentiate it from Phaeohelotium, for other species show stages in the diminution and obliteration of this marginal band, and Nannfeldt figured under Orbiliopsis, species with and without it.

Phaeohelotium trabinellum (Karst.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Peziza trabinella Karst. in Not. Sallsk. Fauna Flora Fennica Io: 147 (1869). Helotium trabinellum (Karst.) Karst., op. cit. I1: 235 (1870). Calycina trabinella (Karst.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. P1. 3 (2): 449 (1898). Pachydisca trabinella (Karst.) Boud., Hist. Class. Discom. d'Europe: 94 (I907). Cistella trabinella (Karst.) Nannf. in Nova Acta Soc. Sci. Upsal., ser. 4, 8: 270

(1932).

This species has the ascus pore distinctly blued in Melzer's reagent, nonseptate ellipsoidal ascopores 9-11 X 3-4Pt in long asci 65-80 X 8-Iot/ and a narrow band of parallel hyphae about 20op deep round the margin. For a fuller description and figures see 'Commonwealth Mycological Institute Mycological Paper' No. 62 (1956).

The following British collections may be referred here: On decorticated wood, Clapham Woods, Yorkshire, 4 May 1963, W. D. Graddon I58o; on Rosa, Elmer, W. Sussex, 6 Oct. 1968, D. A. Reid.

It is noteworthy that Boudier referred the species to Pachydisca, for many of the fungi he placed under that generic name apparently belong in Phaeohelotium, though the type species, Pachydisca guernisaci (Crouan) Boud. is a Rutstroemia according to Le Gal.

Helotium immarginatum Karst. seems doubtfully distinct from P. trabinellum.

Phaeohelotium flexuosum (Crossland) Dennis, comb. nov.

Orbiliaflexuosa Crossland in Grevillea 22: 44 (1893)-

Apothecia dull yellow, drying reddish-brown. Asci 65-70 x 6-7/L, pore only faintly blued by Melzer's reagent; ascospores somewhat fusoid, biguttulate, nonseptate, 8-1 I 3/1; paraphyses slender, 2p[ wide, branched near the base. Fig. 19. On bark, Sunwood, Lightcliffe, Halifax, Yorkshire, 6 June 1893, Crossland (typus); on rotten wood, Wickenbury clough, Todmorden, Yorkshire, 17 July I954, R. Watling.

Discorehmia flavescens Kirschstein, 1938, is perhaps a synonym, especially as its author commented 'Dieser Pilz erinnert etwas an eine Orbilia, ist aber doch durch den inneren Bau gainzlich verschieden'.




FIG. 19. Phaeohelotium flexuosum. Apothecia, x 20; section of margin with ascus, paraphyses and spores, x 66o.

Phaeohelotium italicum (Sacc.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Helotium trabinellum subsp. italicum Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 8: 246 (1889).

This seems adequately distinguished from all the preceding species by its

regularly I-septate narrow ascospores, 8-Io x 2-3#t. Unfortunately I have not been able to study the type, which apparently cannot be found in the Saccardo herbarium, and hence only tentatively refer here the following British collections:

On wood, Orton Wood, Leicestershire, No. 13 (presumably from Bloxam), undated; on Fagus, Boxhill, Surrey, 29 Aug. 1948; on Fraxinus, Hillsborough, Co. Down, 1948; on Carpinus, Stevenage, Hertfordshire; on Quercus, Romiley, Cheshire, Oct. 1951.

Phaeohelotium subcarneum (Schum. ex Sacc.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Helotium subcarneum Schum. ex Sacc. in Michelia 2: 260 (I881). Orbiliopsis subcarnea (Schum. ex Sacc.) von H6hn. in Mitt. Bot. Inst. Techn.

Hochsch. Wien 3: 10I (1926).




This is one of the species with distinctly iodine positive asci and nonseptate ascospores, distinguished by its pink disc. Saccardo's material was on pine wood. I have seen no recent British collections and the description in British Ascomycetes is based on Berkeley's material from Orton Longueville, 1879, which Phillips identified with Helotium ferrugineum. Discorehmia subsyringea Kirschst., on angiosperm wood, with biguttulate ascospores 9-1 X 2- 2-5tk is perhaps the same thing but no type of the name can be found in Kirschstein's herbarium at Berlin. The type-species of Discorehmia was a fungus on leaves of Typha and seems more likely to have been a Calycellina than a member of this lignicolous genus. Nannfeldt, however, thought Calycellina and Orbiliopsis von H6hn. closely allied.

Amongst fungi, apparently of this affinity, there remains a species distinguished by its brown sessile apothecia and dark brown excipular cells, covering a hyaline flesh. It has elliptical ascospores 8- 1 X

3"5-41L and may

be Helotium ferrugineum (Fr.) Fr. but in view of the dark pigmentation and absence of guttules in the ascospores I refrain from proposing a transfer of that name to Phaeohelotium at present. A British collection was made in Horner wood, Somerset, Sept. 1920.

The following tentative key may serve to distinguish the British species in this genus: A. Apothecia over I mm. diameter, ascospores IiCp long and over:

I. Disc yellow, ascospores becoming I-septate: a. Ascospores I1-18 x 3-5IL, disc flat or convex:

*Ascospores ultimately becoming light brown, 12-18 X 4-5 L P. monticola

**Ascospores permanently hyaline, I1-14 x 3-4/1 P. nobilis (Vel.) sensu Le Gal

b. Ascospores I4-20-5 X 3-4"'5p,

disc umbilicate P. umbilicatum 2. Disc lilac-grey, spores nonseptate, 14-20 X 5-8L . P. lilacinum

B. Apothecia usually under I mm. diameter, ascospores up to II[t long (Orbiliopsis von H6hn.):

I. Ascospores regularly I-septate . . . . . . .. P.italicum 2. Ascospores nonseptate:

a. Apothecia yellowish: tApothecia

?-i mm. diameter, flexuous . . . P. flexuosum

tt"Apothecia smaller:

+Ascospores 9-1 X 3-4P, marginal band narrow P. trabinellum

++Ascospores 8-1 Xx 2 5-3IL, marginal band broad P. extumescens

b. Apothecia pink .... .... P. subcarneum

c. Apothecia brown . ... 'Helotium ferrugineum'

The following combinations, though implied, have probably not hitherto been formally made:

Phaeohelotium nobilis (Vel.) Dennis, comb. nov.

Pezizella nobilis Vel., Monogr. Discom. Bohem.: 155 (1934). Pachydisca nobilis (Vel.) Le Gal in Rev. Mycol., sir. 2, 3: 132 (1938).




Phaeohelotium umbilicatum (Le Gal) Dennis, comb. nov.

Pachydisca umbilicata Le Gal in Rev. Mycol., sir. 2, 3: 134 (1938).

Calycellina rivelinensis Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia sparsa, sessilia, exigua, candida, glabra, cupula concava dein

plana, iootL lata. Asci cylindracei, 30-35 x 7-IOtP,

octospori, apice iodo

caerulescentes; ascosporae distichae, oblongae vel ellipsoideae, vulgo uniseptatae, hyalinae, 10-12 X 3P/; paraphyses filiformes, crassit. 2/L, ramosae. Fig. 2o.

Supra folia dejecta putrescentia Querci, Rivelin valley, Sheffield, Yorkshire, June 1953, T. C. Bottomley (typus, K).

A second collection, on leaves dredged from a pond in the same locality and kept damp for a month, Sept. 1953, differs only in having asci up to

5714 long.

FIG. 20. Calycellina rivelinensis. Section and spores, x 66o.

FIG. 2I. Calycellina caricina. Diagrammatic section, x oo; section of margin and part of hymenium, x 66o.

Calycellina caricina Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia sparsa, substipitata, plana vel convexa, glabra, pallida, lutescentia, latit. circiter

o.5 mm., stipite pallido, interdum deorsum

fuscescenti, breviusculo. Asci clavato-cylindracei, 25-35 x 41L, apice attenuati iodo caerulescentes; ascosporae aciculari-elongatae, rectae, 4-7 x / p; paraphyses graciles, crassit.

I.-5p. Fig. 21.




In foliis siccis Caricis ripariae, 'Alder carr marsh', Wheatfen Broad, Norfolk, 21 Nov. 1948, R. W. G. Dennis (typus, K).

Hyalinia rectispora Boud., on rotting Scirpus sylvaticus, was described as having similar ascospores but was figured with truncate asci whereas those of the present species have conical tips with the pore at the apex.

Microscypha ellisii Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia sparsa, superficialia, cupulata, alba, breviter stipitata, vix 0-5 mm. lata. Excipulum totum etextura prismatica usque ad marginem compositum. Pili marginales cylindrici, obtusi, recti, 20-40 X 34L. Asci

clavati, 40-45 x 6-711, octospori, I +. Ascosporae distichae, rectae, hyalinae, cylindrico-clavatae, I1I-12 X 2C ; Paraphyses filiformes. Fig. 22.

Ad folia marcida Caricis ripariae, Wheatfen Broad, Norfolk, 12 Apr. 1953, R. W. G. Dennis (typus, K).

var. eriophori Dennis, var. nov.

A typo differt asci 50-60 x 8/s,

ascosporae 14-I8 X 2/t,

pili marginales 30-35 x 2"5P. Ad folia marcida Eriophori, Wheatfen Broad, Norfolk, I2 Apr. 1953, R. W. G. Dennis (typus, K).

This fungus differs from Psilachnum, which has similar hairs, in the cylindrical paraphyses and from Hyaloscypha in the cylindrical obtuse marginal hairs. Species hitherto referred to Microscypha have dark coloured apothecia but structurally they resemble these fungi on marsh plants.

FIG. 22. Microscypha ellisii. Apothecia, x Io; margin, ascus, paraphysis and spores, x 660.

FIG. 23. Pezizella hughesii. Section of margin, x 660.

Pezizella hughesii Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia sparsa vel gregaria, substipitata, minutissima, alba, vix 250tL lata, pruinosa, stipite brunneo. Asci clavati, octospori, 35-38 x 7-9C,. Ascosporae distichae, ellipsoideae, hyalinae, 7-8(-9) x 2-5-3/L. Paraphyses filiformes. Fig. 23.




Typus: CMI 32023.

This fungus appeared as a contaminant in an isolation of Pachybasium tilletiae collected at Masham, Yorkshire, 27 Sept. I948, and produced apothecia abundantly in agar culture. Its natural substrate is thus uncertain. It reappeared in an agar culture of Venturia pirina, 3 Mar. 1954, CMI 55825- The species seems very closely akin to Pezizella minutula (Bres.) Dennis, but lacks the short cylindrical stalk and has rather larger ascospores. The smooth white receptacle narrows to a dark-brown base about 70po across which is surrounded by sparse loose hyphae on the agar surface, the finer hyaline, the coarser about 31/ broad with thin dark olivaceous walls. The basal tissue of the receptacle is a small-celled parenchyma, the cells 3-5,U diameter, with thin olivaceous walls. This tissue passes upwards into parallel hyphae about

4/1 wide which become very loosely interwoven and more slender with large

airspaces in the hypothecium. The excipulum, about 20/ thick below, tapering upwards, is composed of parallel vertical rows of prismatic very thin-walled cells about io x 4L, terminating at the margin in free hyphal tips like the paraphyses. The latter are obtuse, 1-2p/ wide, and often forked. The ascus pore is faintly blued by Melzer's reagent.

Actinoscypha Karst. in Medd. Fauna Flora Fennica 16: 5 (1888).

This long forgotten genus of Dermateaceae has been revived and revised by Miiller (1966). Its apothecia superficially resemble those of Mollisia but are distinguished by their completely superficial development beneath a mat of radiating hyphae on the surface of grass and sedge culms, by their small- celled excipulum with narrow parallel hyphae, especially towards the margin, and by their slender often branched paraphyses.

Actinoscypha graminis Karst., 1.c. (1888).

Apothecia gregarious on dead grass-culms and leaf-sheaths, up to 0-5 mm. diameter, dark gray-brown with a paler yellowish-gray disc surrounded by a darker, even, obtuse rim, discoid with a broad base and vertical sides, arising from a circular mat of superficial mycelium which readily peels from the substrate. Excipulum of small polyhedral brown cells, 2-4'/1 wide, partly covered with irregular dark brown patches of the disintegrated hyphal mat beneath which it developed. Asci short-stalked, clavate, about 50 x 8?/, 8- spored, pore deep blue in Melzer's reagent; ascospores biseriate, elliptic- cylindric, I-septate, 10-15 X

2"5-3/p, hyaline; paraphyses about I[ wide, enlarged to 2/p at the obtuse apex. Fig. 24, p. 360.

On Bromus ramosus, Pickering, Yorkshire, 30o June 1963; Binton Hill,Warwick- shire, 19 Oct. 1968, R. E. Evans

705.

Karsten gave the ascospore size as 6-8 x 3/s but Miiller has found ascospores up to I I/u long in the type. The type host was Molinia coerulea.

Miller has the fungus on Calamagrostis and Poa while W. D. Graddon has so determined a collection on Deschampsia caespitosa from Ardingly, E. Sussex, and one on an unnamed grass from Rushton, N. Staffs, June 1941. Evidently the fungus may be expected to occur on any of the coarser grasses.




Actinoscypha punctum (Rehm) M•iller in Ber. Schweiz. Bot. Ges. 76: 235 (1966).

Micropeziza punctum Rehm in Ber. Nat. Ver. Augsburg 26: 65 (I881). Beloniella punctum (Rehm) Rehm in Hedwigia 26: 98 (1887). Niptera punctum (Rehm) Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 8: 485 (1889). Belonidium punctum (Rehm) Rehm in Rabenhorst, Krypt. Fl., ed. 2, '(3):

569 (1896). Niesslella punctum (Rehm) von H6hn. in Ber. Deutsch Bot. Ges. 36: 470

(1918).

This minute fungus is the type-species of Niesslella von H6hn. It has already been recorded as British on Nardus stricta, Scarborough, Yorkshire, July 1912, as Belonidium punctum. It is distinguished from the preceding by the smaller apothecia, scarcely 200oo diameter, and larger ascospores, 15-20 X 4-4'5Pt,

which may become 3-septate. Fig. 25-

There is a recent collection on Nardus stricta, c. 2000 ft., west slope of Ben More, Isle of Mull, I Aug. 1968.

FIG. 24. Actinoscypha graminis. Apothecia, x So; showing the residual patches of dark hyphae, section of margin, x 66o, with hyphae of one such patch almost detached in cutting.

FIG. 25. Actinoscypha punctum. Apothecium, x So; ascus, paraphysis and spore, x 660.

Belonium hystrix (de Not.) von Hohn. in Ann. Mycol. I5: 344 (1917).

Belonidium hystrix de Not. in Comm. Crit. Ital.: 381 (1864).

Apothecia scattered, erumpent, saucer-shaped, black, up to 0-5 mm. diameter, often somewhat elliptical owing to their emergence through a longitudinal slit in the epidermis, disc blue-gray, receptacle densely clothed with downy, black adpressed hairs. Asci clavate, 55-70 x opt, 8-spored; ascospores I-2-seriate, elliptic-cylindric, 13-17 x 3t/, with 2-4 guttules; paraphyses simple, septate, enlarged to 5,u wide above. Excipulum of dark brown isodiametric cells, bearing dark brown hairs, up to 40 x 6t, with thick smooth wall, septate or not, often in small fascicles. Fig. 26.




FIG. 26. Belonium hystrix. Apothecium, X 20; margin with setae, ascus and paraphysis, x 66o.

FIG. 27. Gloeopeziza crozalsii. Diagrammatic section, x Ioo, showing location of algal cells and absence of a sterile margin; ascus and 'paraphysis', x 66o.

On Molinia coerulea, Craignure, Isle of Mull, I2 Aug. 1968.

The ascospores ultimately become 3-septate, as might be expected from the guttulation, according to de Notaris and Rehm. This is the type-species of Belonium Sacc., as indicated by him under the erroneous name Belonium graminis (Desm.) Sacc. in Bot. Centralbl. 18: 219 (1884). The synonymy is not explained there but is given in full under the same name in Sylloge Fungorum 8: 493 (1889), though de Notaris had clearly stated that Belonidium hystrix was a name for Peziza graminis Rabenhorst non Desmazieres.

According to von H6hnel Peziza graminis Desm., I841, is a hairless fungus with ascospores 8-Io x I-5-2p. Molinia is the type host of B. hystrix, 'Sui culmi secchi della Molinia in val Intrasca'.

Gloeopeziza crozalsii Grelet in Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 40: 226 (I924).

Apothecia scattered, pulvinate with convex hymenium and no proper margin, about o-5 mm. diameter, drying pale yellow and pruinose with the




protruding ascus tips. Asci clavate with tapering base, very thick-walled, not blued by Melzer's reagent, 12o x 24-34ut, 8-spored; ascospores ovoid, hyaline, nonseptate, 17 x lop; interascal filaments very slender, branched and anastomosingr, I-2/ wide, tips not enlarged. There is no differentiated excipulum; the hymenium is seated on a cushion of slender, interwoven, agglutinated hyphae, with numerous green algal cells incorporated in the basal layer. A thin web of similar slender hyphae enveloping algal cells spreads over the surrounding substrate, the surface of the hepatic thallus. Fig. 27, p. 361. On thallus of Pellia sp., Kishorn, West Ross, 6 Apr. 1969, D. M. Henderson.

The original collection, in France, was also made in April and on a liverwort but on Calypogeia ericetorum. The algal cells are not obviously parasitized and, like some Agaricales, this is evidently biologically a 'Lichen'. It finds no place in the conventional system of Lichenes because there is no morphologically distinctive thallus.

Micraspis strobilina Dennis, sp. nov.

Apothecia innato-emergentia, vix I mm. lata, rotundata vel oblongata, clausa, matura in lacinias plures a centro versus ambitum dehiscentia, atra. Asci clavati, tenui-tunicati, octospori, 8o x 8-ioni, apice jodo non coerulescentes; ascosporae subdistichae, ovoideo-clavatae, hyalinae, uniseptatae, dein 2-3-septatae, I1-14 X 3-4PL, paraphyses filiformes. Fig. 28.

Ad squamas strobilorum Pini sylvestris, Loch Ba, Isle of Mull, 7 Aug. 1968 (typus, K).

The young ascospores bear some resemblance to those of Delphinella strobiligena (Desm.) Sacc. but these occur in polysporous asci, are smaller and do not become 3-septate, nor does the stroma of Delphinella open by lobes to expose a cream-coloured disc like that of the present species. Delphinella strobiligena has still to be found in the British Isles. Odontotrema majusculum Rehm was described with very similar ascospores, on coniferous wood, but its asci turned blue with iodine. From Melittosporiella von H6hn. Micraspis is readily distinguished by the conspicuous black lobed margin, which results from a tearing open of the original covering layer. The type-species of Micraspis is M. acicola Darker, on needles of Picea in North America.

It may have been the present fungus that Rehm described as Dichaena strobilina Fr., with 8-spored asci and 3-septate ascospores Io-x3tL long but this name was based on Sphaeria strobilina Holl ex Fries which, as issued in Holl, Schmidt & Kunze, Deutschlands Schwamme 8, 'Sphaeria strobilina Nobis', is a pycnidial fungus with hyaline fusiform conidia 10-15 x 2 p, sometimes slightly curved and apparently I-septate. This may be the same as Diplodina strobi (Berk. & Br.) Grove, but is scarcely a good Diplodina or Phomopsis.

Stictis luzulae Lib. subsp. junci (Karst.) Karst. in Acta Fauna Flora Fennica 2(6): 166 (1885).

Schmitzomia luzulae (Lib.) de Not. subsp. junci Karst., Mycologia Fennica I: 238 (I871).

Stictis arundinacea Pers. var. junci (Karst.) Rehm apud Rabenhorst, Krypt. Fl., ed. 2, 3(I): 180 (I888).




Apothecia scattered, immersed, erumpent as a white disc about 3o00o diameter which becomes perforated to expose the deeply sunk yellow

hymenium. Asci narrowly cylindrical, about 200 x 7 p, not blued by Melzer's reagent; ascospores fasciculate, almost as long as the ascus, I p wide, with septa at intervals of about 8Cp. Fig. 29.

In culms of Juncus conglomeratus, Scallastle Bay, Isle of Mull, 4 Aug. 1968.

FIG. 28. Micraspis strobilina. FIG. 29. Stictis luzulae subsp. Apothecia, open and closed, junci. Habit sketch, x 5; ascus x Io; asci and spore, x 66o. and part of spore, x 66o.

FIG. 30. Stictis cf. sulfurea. Apothecium, x 10o; ascus and paraphysis, x 66o.

Stictis cf. sulfurea Rehm apud Rabenhorst, Krypt. Fl., ed. 2, 3(I): I77 (1888).

Apothecia scattered, immersed, erumpent by a sulphur-yellow pulverulent disc which becomes perforated to expose the deeply sunken orange hymenium. Asci narrowly cylindrical about Ioo x

8tp, not blued by

Melzer's reagent; ascospores fasciculate, straight or undulating, rounded at the ends, up to 82 X 2-5-3P/, with septa at intervals of 3-4Pt; paraphyses filiform. Fig. 30.




In dead canes of Rubus idaeus, between Salen and Aros Bridge, Isle of Mull, 30 July 1968.

I have queried the determination because Rehm's fungus was described from branches of Quercus and in the absence of any monograph or revision of Stictis it is difficult to judge what characters can be relied upon to differentiate the species. Otherwise his description fits the Mull collection quite well, especially in the rather short and broad ascospores for the genus. He quoted ascospores 75-80 x 4-4'5p and I usually find his figures for ascospore width a little on the high side. Schizoxylon idaei Fuck., described on Rubus idaeus, had ascospores only 46 x 4PL, with I6 septa and lacked the sulphur colour. Karsten recorded Stictis arundinacea Pers. on Rubus idaeus but ascribed to it ascospores 230-240 X .-5-2tL and quite different colouring.

Xylosphaera filiformis (Fr.) Dennis in Kew Bull. 13: 103 (1958).

Excellent fruiting material of this fungus, as commonly interpreted since

Desmazieires's day, has been forwarded to Kew by Dr. J. C. Frankland and prompts a reconsideration of the name. The British material is undoubtedly the same fungus as that distributed by Desmazieres in Crypt. France, S6ries 2, 377, but it does not agree at all well with Albertini & Schweinitz's plate of their Sphaeria filiformis, which shows stouter stromata, even flattened and forked, crowded with closely packed perithecia, and suggests rather a depauperate form of X. hypoxylon Dum. or X. carpophila Dum.

When he validated the name Sphaeria filiformis for modern mycological nomenclature, by publishing it in his Systema Mycologicum 2: 329 (1823), Fries cited both the diagnosis and the plate of Albertini & Schweinitz (1805). He also indicated, however, that he had seen living material of the fungus and cited another prestarting-point description of his own, in Kongl. Vetenskaps Akademiens Handlingar 1816: 133. In this he had again cited Albertini & Schweinitz but had supplied his own description, in Latin and Swedish. The diagnosis printed in Syst. Myc. (1832) was not a copy of that by Albertini & Schweinitz but was a precis of his own Latin text of 1816. It is unlikely that the 1816 collection survives but there is at Kew material distributed by Fries from Uppsala in 1853 as Xylaria filiformis. Though it is sterile this could be the same fungus as that of Desmazieres. In these cir- cumstances it seems best to adopt the permissable fiction that Fries in his validating volume of 1832 was describing Sphaeria filiformis as a new species of his own, with this description as the type. The name will then be ascribed to Fries without reference to prestarting-point authors. If this course is not

acceptable another name should probably be sought for the fungus called Xylaria filiformis by Desmazieres and subsequent authors, probably X. schwackei P. Henn. (1895), based on a collection from Rio de Janeiro.

The recent British collection is on decomposing leaves of Betula, Meathrop Wood, Westmorland, Jan. 1970, P. J. Howard, and yields ascospores I

I-14-5 x 5-6 x 4-'5/. Fig. 31.

Desmazieres's fungus grew on leaves of Acer platanoides, Carpinus, Castanea, Fagus, Populus, Quercus and Salix; that of Albertini & Schweinitz was on those of Syringa vulgaris. Fries did not indicate any particular hosts. X. fliformis as here understood evidently has a cosmopolitan distribution, outside Europe there are collections so referred at Kew from Canada, U.S.A., Brazil, Ceylon, India and New Zealand.




FIG. 3I. Xylosphaera filiformis. Stromata natural size and portion enlarged to show the protruding perithecia, ascospores, x 66o.

Xylaria subularis Fr.,cited by Karsten and others as a synonym of X.filiformis, is a name proposed in Summa Vegetabilium Scandinaviae, Sectio posterior: 382 (1849) without diagnosis, but with 'Rhizom. simplex P.' cited as a

synonym. Perhaps Rhizomorpha simplicissima Pers. (1822) was intended

'erecta, atro-nitida, simplex aut subramulosa, apice albicans', which grew on dead stems of Chaerophyllum sylvestre. Karsten used the name X. subularis for his Fungi Fennici Exs. 559, without diagnosis. The name would appear to have been based on sterile strands and to be unacceptable for an

ascomycete. In the sixteenth, synonym, volume of the 'Sylloge Fungorum', Saccardo

cites a Rhizomorpha simplex Rebentisch as a synonym of R. chordalis Ach. The latter came from the West Indies and judging by the figure in Acharius

(1814) it was mycelium of one of the thread-blight species of Marasmius. The

figure does not resemble any species of Xylosphaera known to me from the American tropics, nor even Thamnomyces chordalis Fr.

Zygospermella insignis (Mouton) Cain in Mycologia 27: 227 (1935)-

Delitschia insignis Mouton in Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belge 36: 13 (1897). gygospermum setosum Cain in University of Toronto Studies, Biol. Ser. 38: 74

(1934)- Zygospermella setosa (Cain) Cain in Mycologia 27: 227 (I935).

Perithecia scattered, immersed with protruding necks, pyriform, about I mm. tall and 0o5 mm. wide, olive-black, the neck beset with stiff, pointed black setae, 6o-Ioo X 4tL with finely verrucose walls. Asci cylindrical, 350 x 3o/1, 8-spored; ascospores biseriate, 42-56 x 12-I5pL, 2-celled, strongly constricted at the septum, dark brown, smooth, with a long, tapering, hyaline appendage, up to

50ot long, at each end.

On horse-dung, Isle of Ulva, 17 June 1969. The fungus has been recently discussed and figured by Lundquist (1969).

N




Linostomella sphaerosperma (Fuck.) Petrak in Ann. Mycol. 23: 42 (1925).

Ceratostoma sphaerosperma Fuck. in Jahrb. Nass. Ver. Nat. 23/24: I27 (1870). Ceratostomella sphaerosperma (Fuck.) Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum I: 412 (1882).

Stromata superficial, as small black crusts, containing from one to many perithecia up to about 0-25 mm. diameter, with protruding, slender, subcylindric necks up to 300 x 5o-Ioop. Asci cylindric-clavate, thin- walled with slender stalks, iodine negative, about 35 x 3-4p, 8-spored; ascospores uniseriate or occasionally in part biseriate, hyaline, subglobose, 2-5-3 x 2-2-5/u. Fig. 32/1.

On decorticated wood, Oversley, Warwickshire, 18 Apr. 1969, Clark 781.

I

2

3

FIG. 32. x, Linostomella sphaerosperma. Perithecia, x 20; ascus, x 66o. 2, Phomatospora arenaria, Habit sketch, x I; perithecium, x Ioo; ascus, x 66o0. 3, Trichosphaerella cf. decipiens Perithecium, x I50; apex with pore and setae, ascus and ascospore after fragmentation, x 66o.

Chaetapiospora rhododendri (Tengwall) von Arx in Ber. Schweiz. Bot. Ges. 62: 359 (1952).

Venturia rhododendri Tengwall in Meded. Phytopath. Lab. 'Willie Commelen Scholten' Baarn 6: 6o (1924).

Dr. R. Watling has kindly forwarded to Kew mature perithecia of this minute ascomycete which matured on leaves of Rhododendron maximum, sent from Kirkudbrightshire to Edinburgh and kept there six weeks in a damp chamber, April 1969.




Phomatospora arenaria Sacc., Bomm. & Rouss. in Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 29: 276 (1891).

Perithecia subepidermal, becoming erumpent, scattered or confluent, black, up to 300oo diameter, with a short, protruding, ostiolar papilla. Asci cylindric, 130 x 7tt, thin-walled, with refractive apical ring, not stained by iodine, 8-spored; ascospores uniseriate, ellipsoid, hyaline, biguttulate, 13-17 x 4-5,u. Fig. 32/2.

On dead rhizomes and basal leaf-sheaths of Ammophila arenaria, west shore, Iona, 31 July 1968.

Phomatospora arenaria was described from the dunes at Ostend, Belgium and has been collected by Munk in Jutland and in Norway (Rogaland) and Sweden (Bohuslan) by O. Eriksson (1967), who points out that it differs from P. angelicae (Fuck.) Mouton in having larger ascospores. P. berkeleyi Sacc., which also occurs on grasses, has even smaller ascospores only 8-io x

2-2"-5p.

Trichosphaerella cf. decipiens Bomm., Rouss. & Sacc. apud Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 9: 604 (1891).

Perithecia superficial, slightly flattened sphaeroidal, Ioout diameter, with an apical pore and rather soft-textured wall composed of polygonal cells 5-7p across with thin olive-brown walls. The upper part of the perithecium bears scattered, stiff, pointed, smooth walled, black setae, 10-35 x 5-8pL at the base. The asci are thin-walled, cylindrical, sessile, rounded above, not blued by Melzer's reagent, about 30 X 5u, and contain at first 8, irregularly uniseriate, uniseptate ascospores, hyaline, 6 x 2-5/L, deeply constricted at the septum. These finally break apart to give I6 unicellular ascospores with finely punctate walls. Fig. 32/3.

Erumpent through Peniophora cinerea on Fraxinus, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, East Sussex, 14 Oct. 1967; on Peniophora sp. on Betula, same locality, 30o Dec. 1967.

I have queried the determination at specific level because continental descriptions of this minute fungus do not mention the fine but distinct warting of the ascospore wall and cite slightly larger ascospores 8-Io x 2-3tp. It is difficult to estimate the taxonomic importance of such small differences without a long series of collections.

Appendiculella calostroma (Desm.) von H[hn. in Sitz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Nat. K1. 138: 556 (I9I9).

Sphaeria calostroma Desm. in Bull. Soc. Bot. France 4: IoII (1857).

Although this fungus was described from Normandy so long ago its only published British station has been on Raspberry leaves in County Kerry. Recently Mr. MacGarvie pointed out to me that it is in fact abundant on canes ofRubusfruticosus agg. in Ireland. Guided by his field notes I sought it in Sussex and was at once successful. As I trust Mr. MacGarvie will eventually publish his observations in detail it will suffice here to state that A. calostroma is present in SE. England:




At base of living canes of Rubus fruticosus agg., in shade, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, East Sussex, 22 Mar. 1969; Zeals, Wiltshire, 12 Dec. 1970.

Hansford (1961) cites the full synonymy and indicates a cosmopolitan distribution for this fungus, on Rubus and other Rosaceae. He quotes collections from every continent except Europe, from which it was originally described.

Didymella scotica Dennis, sp. nov.

Perithecia innata, sparsa, epidermide velata, globulosa, minute papillulata, atra, 2oo-30oo lata. Asci clavati, apice rotundati, crasse-tunicati, i oo-120

15/P, octospori; ascosporae fusoideae, utrinque acutae, medio septatae, non constrictae, subdistichae, hyalinae, 18-22 X 6-7p. Fig. 33- In foliis emortuis Ammophilae arenariae, west shore, Iona, 3 July 1968, R. W. G. Dennis (typus, K).

This may be what has been described as Paradidymella perforans (Desm.) Munk but the basionym of that name is Sphaeria perforans Roberge apud Desmazieres (1843), which is the very common pycnidial fungus of Marram leaves, Tiarospora perforans (Rob.) von Hohn. Didymella praestabilis Rehm apparently differs from our fungus in its shorter broader asci and larger ascospores 20-27 x 8-io/L.

Lophiosphaera ulicis (Pat.) E. Miiller in Beitrage Krypt. Fl. Schweiz xI (2): 336 (1962).

Ceriospora ulicis Pat. in Rev. Mycol. 7: 153 (1885). C. patouillardii Letendre apud Pat., Tabulae analyticae fungorum Fasc. 215

(r886). Ceriosporella patouillardii (Let.) Berlese, Icones Fungorum I, Fasc. 5/6, 121

(1894). Pseudothecia erumpent, with smooth, black, globose venter and short,

broad, ostiolar papillae, ostiole a very short slot or even a circular pore. Asci clavate, thick-walled, 8-spored, about 00oo x I3~; ascospores irregularly biseriate, hyaline, fusoid, with a median septum, 4-guttulate, the outer layer of the wall produced at each end into a transparent conical appendage, 25-32 x 6fk without the appendages, up to 45[t long overall; interascal filaments slender and anastomosing. Fig. 34. On dead branches of Ulex europaeus, Salen, Isle of Mull, Io Aug. 1968.

This is the type-species of Ceriosporella Berlese.

Acanthostigma parasiticum (Hartig) Sacc., Sylloge Fungorum 9: 855 (1891).

Trichosphaeria parasitica Hartig in Hedwigia 27: 12 (1888).

Pseudothecia clustered on a copious black subiculum, globose, about I OO-200OL

diameter, black, closely beset with stiff, black, tapering setae, about 50 x 5x, themselves often bearing short lateral processes near the tip. Asci thick-walled, clavate, subsessile, about 45 x

Io/, 8-spored; ascospores irregularly arranged, elliptic-cylindric to clavate, 3-septate, brown, 14- 20 X

4-5/t. Fig. 35, P. 370.




FIG. 33. Didymella scotica. Habit sketch, x I; ascus, x 66o.

FIG. 34. Lophiosphaera ulicis. Pseudothecia, x Io; ascus and spores, x 660.

Forming a black coating on twigs of Abies alba, Thetford Chase, Norfolk, 3 June 1969, comm. S. Batko.

According to a footnote in Hedwigia the name was earlier published in Allgem. Forst. Jagdzeitung (Jan. I884), which I have not seen.

Gloniella adianti (Kunze) Petrak in Ann. Mycol. 29: 120 (I931).

Hysterium adianti Kunze in Flora 13: 371 (1830).

Hysterothecia scattered, superficial, black, up to 0-5 mm. long, with a single longitudinal slit. Asci clavate, subsessile, thick-walled, 30-50 x

14-I5/p, 8-spored; ascospores irregularly arranged, hyaline, 3-septate, 15-20 X 3-6tt. Fig. 36, p. 370.

On dead fronds of Trichomanes speciosum, north of Kildorrery, Co. Limerick.

Hitherto known only on Adiantum capillus-veneris in Madeira. We owe this important addition to the British flora to the devotion of Miss Maura Scannell who not only tracked down an obscure station for the rare fern host but noticed the minute black spots on dead fronds and forwarded material first to Kew and later for confirmation to Dr. H. Zogg in Zurich.

Fumagospora capnodioides Arnaud in Ann. 1•cole Nat. Agric. Montpell. Io: 326 (1911).

Pycnidia superficial on a black mycelium, pyriform below, passing upwards into a long cylindrical beak with apical ostiole fringed by hyaline setae, black, about 270 x 50o?; wall formed of parallel dark olive-brown




FIG. 35. Acanthostigma parasiticum. Pseudo- thecia, x soo; seta, ascus and spores, x 66o.

FIG. 36. Gloniella adianti. Hysterothecia, x

15; ascus and spores, x 660.

hyphae; pycnospores elliptical, brown, 14 x 6tz, with three transverse septa and one longitudinal septum, flowing singly up the canal of the beak to be extruded from the ostiole. Fig. 37-

Sooty mould on leaves of Salix sp., Axmouth, Devon, 22 Sept. I968.

It seems likely this is the conidial state of Capnodium salicinum which occurs in the same situation, on similar mycelium and has similar though larger ascospores but it is odd that the genus was omitted from Grove's Coelo- mycetes when he included the equally superficial epiphyllous genus Cicinnobolus.

Ascochyta anisomera Kabat & Bubak in Hedwigia 43: 418 (1904)-

Pycnidia scattered over large, ill-defined, yellowish patches of fading leaves, about 150t diameter; conidia ellipsoid to ovoid, straight or slightly reniform, hyaline, 21-25 x 8-9p, with a septum near the narrow end. Fig. 38, p. 372-

In leaves of Myosoton aquaticum, Woodchester, Gloucestershire, I Aug. 1963-

Kabat & Bubak commented on the resemblance of the conidia, with their distinctive septation, to those of a Marssonina. Those of M. delastrei (Delacr.) Magn., on other genera of Caryophyllaceae, are narrower than the above and more distinctly curved, 15-25 x 5-64/.

Septogloeum carthusianum (Sacc.) Sacc. in Michelia 2: II (I880).

Gloeosporium carthusianum Sacc. in Michelia I: 93 (1877).

Acervuli about I mm. across, in small, scattered, whitish leaf-spots, up to 3 mm. diameter, opening widely to expose the cream-coloured spore mass. Conidia hyaline, predominantly I-septate but a few with 2, rarely 3, septa, 18-38 x 8-I3p. Fig. 39, P- 372.



NEW OR INTERESTING BRITISH MICROFUNGI 37I

On Euonymus europaeus, Ranmore, Surrey, 17 July 1964.

This is the type-species of Septogloeum Sacc. In view of the great variability in size and shape of the conidia it seems likely that Marssonia thomasiana (Sacc.) Sacc. subsp. fautreyana Sacc. in Bull. Soc. Mycol. France I6: 23 (I 9o0) on the same host, may be a synonym, in spite of the narrow spores cited for it, 20-23 X 4L.

FIc. 37. Fumagospora capnodioides, x 500; conidium, x 66o.

Linodochium hyalinum (Lib.) von Hohn. in Sitz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Nat. KI. 118: 1239 (1909).

Dacryomyces hyalinus Lib., Plant. Crypt. Arduenn.: 333 (1837)-




Pionnotes pinastri Karst. in Hedwigia 27: 105 (1888). Dacryomyces acuorum Fautr. & Roum. in Rev. Mycol. 12: 61 (1890). Cylindrosporium acicolum Bres. in Hedwigia 33: 208 (1894). Dendrodochium subtile Fautr. in Rev. Mycol. 17: 167 (1895). Cylindrocolla pini Fautr. in Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 15: 153 (1899).

Sporodochia superficial, watery-gelatinous, yellowish, 1-2 mm. across. Conidia hyaline, acicular, 30-40 x I, occasionally up to 70op long according to von H6hnel. The sporodochia dry down to a small brown stain on the surface of the needle.

On rotting fallen pine-needles, Loch Ba, Isle of Mull, 7 Aug. 1968.

FIG. 38. Ascochyta anisomera. Conidia, x 660. FIG. 39. Septogloeum carthusianum. Conidia, x 660.

Cercospora zebrina Pass. in Hedwigia 16: I24 (1877).

This species does not figure in the British Mycological Society's 'Check list of British Hyphomycetes' and although Sampson & Western (1942) recorded the occurrence of a Cercospora on Trifolium repens in Wales they deferred its specific identification. It is therefore worth noting that F. C. Deighton has confirmed the following as Cercospora zebrina:

On Trifolium repens, Llanfihangel-yng-ngwnfa, Montgomeryshire, 9 Sept. 1969.

Cercospora radiata Fuck. in Hedwigia 5: 24 (1866). On leaf of Anthyllis vulneraria, Braewick, Eshaness, Shetland, I July 1970.

This determination by F. C. Deighton seems to afford the first British record of the species which is apparently common through western Europe from Italy to Sweden.

Hobsonia mirabilis (Peck) Linder in Ann. Missouri Bot Gard. 16: 340 (1929).

Helicomyces mirabilis Peck in Ann. Rep. New York State Museum 34: 46 (1881).

Hobsonia gigaspora Berk. apud Massee in Ann. Bot. 5: 509 (1891). H. ackermannii Pat. in Bull. Soc. Mycol. France 18: 185 (1892).

Sporodochia gelatinous, about 2 mm. diameter, watery white; conidia multiseptate, coiled in more than one plane, 9-12ps wide in a coil 25-40op




across, hyphal wall thin, colourless, cells mostly containing one large guttule; conidiophore short, simple, slender, colourless. Fig. 40. On dead wood, Isle of Ulva, 8 Aug. 1968.

FIG. 40. Hobsonia mirabilis. Conidia, x 660.

The genus has been thoroughly discussed by Martin (1959) who concluded that the small differences described between H. mirabilis, from New Jersey, and H. gigaspora, from Venezuela, were such as were to be expected at different states of development and that only a single species was involved. Linder had already shown that H. ackermannii was identical with H. gigaspora. The Ulva collection is apparently the first for Europe.

REFERENCES

Acharius, E. (1814). Utkast till Historien om Tradslinge-Slagtet (Rhizomorpha). Kongl. Vet.-Akad. Handlinger 35: 201-236.

Ainsworth, G. C. & Sampson, K. (1950). The British Smut Fungi (Ustilaginales).

Darker, G. D. (I963). A new genus of Phacidiaceae on Picea mariana. Canad. Journ. Bot. 41: I389-1393-

Eckblad, F. E. (1968). The Genera of the Operculate Discomycetes. Nytt Magasin for Botanikk 15: 1-191.

Eriksson, 0. (1967). On graminicolous pyrenomycetes from Fennoscandia, 3. Amerosporous and didymosporous species. Arkiv f6r Botanik, ser. 2, 6: 441-466.

Favre, J. (1948). Les Associations fongiques des hauts-marais jurassiens. Materiaux Flore Crypt. Suisse io, fasc. 3.

Fuckel, L. (1871). Symbolae Mycologicae. Erster Nachtrag. Jahrbuich. Nassauischen Ver. Naturk. 25/26, 287-347.

Gamundi, I. J. & Dennis, R. W. G. (1969). The status of Ascotremella Seaver. Darwiniana 15: 14-21.

Groves, J. W. (1952). The genus Tympanis. Canad. Journ. Bot. 30: 571-651. (1965). The genus Godronia. Canad. Journ. Bot. 43: 1195-1276.

-- (1968). Two new species of Ascocalyx. Canad. Journ. Bot. 46: i273- 1278.

-- & Wilson, D. E. (1967). The nomenclatorial status of Coryne. Taxon I6: 35-41.




Hansford, C. G. (196 ). The Meliolineae. Sydowia, Beiheft 2.

Lundquist, N. (1969). Zygopleurage and Zygospermella (Sordariaceae sens. lat. Pyrenomycetes). Bot. Not. I22: 353-374.

Maas Geesteranus, R. A. (1966). On Helvella platypus DC. Koninkl. Ned. Akad. Wetenschappen, ser. C, 69: 191-203.

-- (1967). Studies in cup-fungi, I. Persoonia 4: 417-425- Martin, G. W. (1959). On the genus Hobsonia. Brittonia II: 98-Io I. Miiller, E. (1966). Actinoscypha Karsten eine verkannte Discomyceten-

Gattung. Ber. Schweiz. Bot. Ges. 76: 230-238. Pirozynski, K. A. & Reid, J. (1966). Studies on the Patellariaceae, I.

Eutryblidiella sabina (de Not.) H6hn. Canad. Journ. Bot. 44: 655-662. Rifai, M. (1968). The Australasian Pezizales in the herbarium of the Royal

Botanic Gardens, Kew. Verhandl. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetenschappen Afd. Natuurkunde, ser. 2, 57, No. 3.

Sampson, K. & Western, J. H. (1942). Diseases of British Grasses and Herbage Legumes. Cambridge.

van Brummelen, J. (1967). A world Monograph of the genera Ascobolus and Saccobolus. Persoonia, Supplementary volume I.

van Vloten, H. & Gremmen, J. (1953). Studies in the Discomycete genera Crumenula de Not. and Cenangium Fr. Acta Bot. Neerl. 2: 226-24I.

Wilson, M. & Henderson, D. M. (1966). British Rust Fungi. Cambridge.

A sixteenth-century botanist.-Leonard Rauwolf, after whom the genus Rauwolfia is named, is a somewhat obscure figure in the annals of botanical

exploration. Little is known of his early life as a medical student at

Montpellier and physician at Augsburg. His brother-in-law, a merchant who traded in the Levant, arranged for him to serve as a physician to the firm's agents in the Near East in 1573. Rauwolf's travels took him to Tripoli, Aleppo, Raqqa, Baghdad and Jerusalem where he observed and recorded with a keen eye and irrepressible curiosity the countryside and social scene. Botany was his abiding passion, and compelled by strong religious feelings, he took delight in identifying plants associated with the Bible: manna, for

instance, and the 'willow', Populus euphratica, on which the Israelites hung their harps, and, of course, the famous Cedars of Lebanon. After three years of adventure and hardship he resumed his medical practice at Augsberg, tended his botanic garden there, and in 1582 published an account of his travels.

The author's account* of Rauwolf is based largely on this 1582 work. The

plants named or described by Rauwolf are conveniently listed in an appendix with their modern botanical names. By skilful selection from Rauwolf's work a convincing portrait of the man himself has been created against the

fascinating background of Moslem life in the late sixteenth century. R. G. C. DESMOND

* Leonard Rauwolf. Sixteenth-century Physician, Botanist, and Traveler. By Karl H. Dannenfeldt. Pp. viii, 321, 5 black-and-white illustrations. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1968. Price ?3.80.



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