i i l
STILBOSPORA o v a t a
Ovate Stilbospora.
S i
S PEC IF IC CHARACTER.
S t i l b o s p o r a o v a t a ; acei'vì parvi, sporidiis ovatis, uniloadatis.
St. heaps small, sporidia ovate, unilocular..
S t i l b o s p o r a ovata, Pers. Obs. Mycol. 1. p. 31. t. 2. f. 2.—Syn. Fung. p. 961
—Alh. et Schwein. p. 53.—Schwein. Fung. Carol. No. 509-
H a b . On dead branches of trees, i n autumn. About Edinburgh.
Sporidia ovate, rather large for the genus, not very numerous, subopaque»
not divided by any septa, forming little black convex heaps, less than a
line in diameter.
This species is first described hy P e r s o o n in his Ohserva-
tiones Mycologicffi, where he also gives a tolerably exact figure
of the sporidia, which he expressly says are destitute of distinct
septa. We find him subsequently, in the Synopsis Fungorum,
referring his plant to H o f f m a n n ’s St. pyriformis. A l b e r -
T iN i and S c h w e i n i t z observe, that the specimens they discovered
in Lusatia agreed exactly with P e r s o o n ’s figure, but
not with that of H o f f m a n n ; “ forma cum icone Persooniana
exacte convenientes, at figura Hoffmanniana nonne aliorsum
pertinet ?” S t e u d e l , in his Nomenclátor Botanicus, follows
P e r s o o n in considering these two plants as the same, and only
keeps up St. pyriformis. I have not access to H o f f m a n n ’s
figure, but I have examined the specimens published by F r i e s ,
in the Scleromyceti Suecise, of the true St. pyriformis, and find
it to differ in every particular from St. ovata, being of a much
longer form, and divided by 3-4 very distinct septa.
Fig. 2. a. Plants, natural size, b, Sporidia, magnified.