Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/175

 NEW OR CRITICAL FUNGI. 153 The present species is iu absolute agreement with the generic character of Sterigmatocystls, except in having the hyphae grouped into a compact fascicle to form a stem-like base, a character which I do not consider as of generic importance, although Saccardo has done so in the parallel case of PeniciUium and Coremium. Sporotrichum arabicum Mass. Developed in tlie unexpanded inflorescence ; olive-brown, velvety, soon pulverulent, bordered by the pale, radiating mycelium; sterile hyphae creeping, branched,, sparingly septate, hyaline, 4-5 /x thick ; fertile hyphae ascending, septate, furnished near the apex with subfasciculate, short, closely septate branchlets; conidia solitary and apical, fusoid, base truncate, apex apiculate, smooth, pale olive, 6x3/*. Arabia (coll. J. Lunt). Parasitic on the young inflorescence oi Phoenix dactylifera. Completely covering the inflorescence with a dense blackish olive powder long before it escapes from the spathe. The flowers are completely destroyed. Pluteus giganteus Mass. Solitary or gregarious ; pileus broadly ovate, then expanded, broadly gibbous, even, glabrous, dry, becoming much contracted when dry, margin more or less per- sistently incurved, tawny-orange, disc darkest, 18-24 cm. across, flesh firm, 2 cm. or more in thickness at the disc, becoming gradually thinner towards the margin ; gills free, 6-8 mm. distant from the stem, rather crowded, thin, slightly wavy, margin entire, pale salmon-colour, up to 2 cm. broad ; spores elliptical, smooth, 1-guttulate, pale salmon-colour, 7 X 5 /x; stem 12-14 cm. long, 3-4 cm. thick at the apex, base much incrassated, incurved, solid, glabrous, pallid. Growmg on rotten wood. Georgetown, British Guiana [Jenman, no. 3596). A very fine species, characterised by its large size, and much incrassated base of the stout stem. Jenman stated that one speci- men weighed two pounds when fresh. Polypoms diminutus Mass. (PI. 357, figs. 17 & 18). Hori- zontal, imbricated, conchate, soft and fleshy, pileus convex, margin slightly incurved, glabrous, deep orauge-red, 3-4 mm. across, flesh pale yellow, hymenium almost plane, similar in colour or paler than the pileus, pores shallow, oblong, with a tendency to radiate from stem to margin, about f mm. long, dissepiments thick ; cystidia absent; spores hyaline, smooth, elliptic-oblong, 3-4 x 1*5 /x; stem lateral, horizontal, slightly curved, slender, about 2 mm. loug, yellow, rarely with a tinge of red, pruinose. On stumps of trees. Port Phillip, Victoria (F. Header, no. 31). Distinguished from Gloeoporus pusillus in the yellow, pruinose stem, and in being rigid and dry, not at all tremelloid. Clavaria Kewensis Mass. Base thick, dividing almost at once into numerous, subequal, divergent branches 4-7 cm. long; branches uniform in thickness throughout, often compressed, im- perfectly hollow, dividing near the apex into 2-4 short branchlets, axils rounded, tips obtuse or divided into 2-4 short finger-like