Zd4-
CEUTHOSPORA L a u r i.
Laurel Ceuthospora.
C l a s s a n d O r d e r CRYPTOCxAMIA FUNGI, im«.—N a t O r d . H YPO X Y LA ,
De Cartd.
G EN E R IC CHARACTER.
Perithecium cellulare, innatum, aslomtm, demum irregulariter dehiscens, nucleum
atrum includens. Sporidia e nucleo dissoluto erumpentia.
Perithecium cellular, innate, mouthless,. at length irregularly dehiscent,
containing a black nucleus. Sporidia escaping from the dissolving nucleus.
S P E C IF IC CHARACTER.
C e o t h o s p o r a Lauri ; sparsa vet. gregaria ; perithecia innato, rufescenie-nigro,
obtuse conico, demum in lacinias 3-4, acutas, erectas, dehiscenti ; nucko solitario,
sporidiis cylindricis.
C. scattered or gregarious perithecium innate, reddish-black, obtusely conical,
a t length bursting by 3 -4 acute, erect, segments ; nucleus solitary,
the sporidia cylindrical.
SphjERIa Lauri, Sow. Fung. t. 371- f- 4.
S p h a : r i a Hederse, /3 Lauri, Fries, Syst. Mycol v. 2. p. 521.
C r y p t o s p h ^ r i a Lauri, Grev. Fl. Fdin. p. 361.
H ab. On the dead leaves of the Common Laurel (Laurus nobilis) at all seasons.
Very frequent.
Perithecia scattered or gregarious, innate, and incorporated with the epidermis
on both sides of the leaf, reddish-black, plane at the margin, but
becoming obtusely conical towards the centre, and paler at the apex,
where they bu rst at length into 3 or 4 acute, erect segments. Within
is a sobtary nucleus of a dark colour, which, on the application of moisture,
dissolves into a prodigious number of minute cylindrical sporidia.
In escaping from tbe perithecium, the sporidia form to themselves a
kind o f marginal orifice, as in Ceuthospora phacidioides.
This plant, first published by S o w e r b y from specimens
communicated by Mr K i r b y , has not been taken up by other
British writers ; and in W i t h e r i n g ’s Arrangement especially.