Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/488

452 16. BULGARIA, Fries.

1. Bulgaria arenaria, Lev., Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. 3. vol. v. p. 253. Lycoperdcm arenarium, Pers. in Freyc. Toy. p. 179. 1. 1. f. 2. Gaud. I. c.

Hab. Falkland Islands ; "tres-commnn en Mars et Avril, au sommet des dunes de sable qui bordent le contour de la baie Francaise au Camp de l'Uranie."

This species unfortunately was not found during the visit of the Erebus and Terror. M. Leveille has had an opportunity of inspecting an original specimen, and finds its slender asci to contain simple sporidia.

17. CYTTABIA, Berh.

1. Cyttaria Hooker/, Berk.; parva, turbinato-obovata, obtuse papillata, pallide fusca, cupulis paucis. (Tab. CLXII. Fig. I.)

Hab. Hermite Island, Cape Horn ; on living branches of the Deciduous Beech.

Receptacula communia obovata, e disco oblongo corticali enata, |— 1 unc. alta, -i— | unc. crassa, basi attenuata, apice obtuse papillaeformi, pallide fusca, glabra ; contextu ut in aliis speciebus gelatinoso-carnoso, e fibris anastomo-santibus ; cupulis paucis, primum materie gummosa repletis, demum vacuis ; ascis liuearibus truncatis, paraphysibus linearibus quandoque furcatis immixtis. Sporidia ignota.

The genus Cyltaria is peculiar to the Southern hemisphere, and unless Commerson's habitat, to be mentioned presently, shoidd prove correct, to the more temperate latitudes. All the species known at present grow on living beech ; Cyttaria Berteroi on Fagus obliqua, the Fuegian species on Fagus betuloides, that of Tasmania on Fagus Cunninghami, and Cyttaria Hooheri on Fagus Antarctica. The species, on which Cyttaria disciformis, Lev., grows, has not been ascertained. It is probable that the genus occurs also in New Zealand, where there is a species of beech closely allied to Fagus Cunningliami. There exists, indeed, in Monsieur B. Delessert's Herbarium, a species purporting to have been collected in the Isle of Bourbon, by Commerson, but though the locality is very precisely indicated, it is probable, both on account of the difference of climate and the absence of the genus Fagus in that island, that there is some mistake about the specimen.

All the species seem to grow from a distinct disc, which doubtless, as in Podisoma, produces a fresh crop every season. The disc bursts through the cuticle, and is formed either entirely of the lower portion of the bark, or of that and the upper stratum of the wood, which are split longitudinally or in the direction of the medullary rays, the fissures being traversed by loose threads of mycelium. Sometimes, also, there are traces of mycelium in portions of bark where no disc has been protruded. The structure of the bark is often much deranged, and sometimes quite disorganized. The base of the receptacles is attenuated, and penetrates generally to the dotted vessels. In Cyttaria Qimnii, which seems more truly cortical, there appears always to be a fascicle of such vessels in connexion with the base penetrating through the cortical stratum. I do not find this to be the case in Cyttaria Hookeri. The structure of the substance of the receptacles is so different in the plant when dry, from that in the same species when