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CHÆTOPSIS W a u c h i i .
Crowded Chætopsis.
C la ss a n d O r d e r CRYPTOGAMIA FUNGI, L i™ .— N a t . O r d . BYSSOlDEÆ,
Grew.— MUCEDINES, Link.
G EN ERIC CHARACTER.
Fila minuta, continua, erecta, opaca, setiformia, basi ramulis brevibus instructa.
Sporidia pellucida nuda, inter ramuhs coacervata.
Filaments minute, continuous, erect, opaque, bristle-shaped, furnished with
short branches at the base. Sporidia pellucid, naked, collected among
the branches.
S PEC IF IC CHARACTER.
C h æ t o p s i s Wauchii;....................
C h æ t o p s i s Wauchii, Grev. in Fdinb. P h il Journ. v . 13. p. 63. t. 1. f. 1.
H a b . On rotten wood in the Spring. Foxhall, Captain W a u c h .
Plants gregarious, erect, less than two lines in height. Filaments bristle-
shaped, very slender, exceedingly attenuated towards the apex, dark
brown, opaque, not jointed, furnished near the bottom with a few very
short, mostly simple, somewhat spreading branches, among which the
sporidia are crowded in a cylindrical mass. Sporidia free, oblong,
whitish, pellucid, occupying about a fourth or fifth part of the length
of the entire filament.
It has never fallen to my lot, since the commencement of
this work, to record a plant more curious than that now figm-ed.
In regard to its affinities, I am quite at a loss ; indeed, it seems
to be the intermediate link between the persistent and the more
evanescent Byssoideoe,—i\w filament appearing to belong to
the former, and the sporidia to tbe latter. The erect filaments
are so slender, that they are scarcely visible to tbe naked eye,
unless when placed in a favourable light ; so that the whole
plant at first sight seems nothing but a minute greyish-white
body.