Helotium brevisporum Cooke & Phillips in Grevillea 8, 63 (Dec. 1879).

Apothecia scattered, superficial, subsessile; disc flat, up to 3 mm. across, ochraceous, with a low obtuse margin; receptacle saucer-shaped, paler than the disc, smooth, with a short stout stalk, largely immersed in the substrate. Excipulum of parallel hyphae lying at a moderate angle to the surface, 4-5 µ wide, with rather thick hyaline walls; flesh of loosely woven hyaline hyphae, stained brown in the base of the stalk only. Asci cylindric-clavate, about 75 x 6 µ, 8-spored, pore blued by Melzer's reagent; ascospores uniseriate, elliptical, 8-12 x 3-4 µ, becoming 1-septate. Paraphyses cylindrical, 2 µ wide. On decorticated wood.

NEW ZEALAND: Waitaki, S. Berggren 30b (Typus). Fig. 17.

Helotium pezizoideum Cooke @ Phillips in Grevillea 19, 72 (March 1891).

Apothecia scattered, superficial; disc slightly concave, ochraceous, up to 2 mm. across; receptacle slightly paler, shallow cupshaped, smooth, with a short, stout stalk, usually strigose with white hairs towards the base. Excipulum of slightly undulating parallel hyphae, 5-6 µm wide, lying at a moderate angle to the surface. Asci cylindric-clavate, 70-90 x 6-7 µm, 8-spored, the pore only faintly blued by Melzer's reagent; ascospores biseriate, cylindric-clavate, tapering below, straight or slightly curved, 10-14 x 2.5-3 µm. Paraphyses cylindrical, not enlarged at the tips, 2 µm thick, with granular contents. On decorticated wood.

NEW ZEALAND: Waitaki (Typus). Fig. 16.
QUEENSLAND: unlocalised, Langdon 1460, 21.3.1954.

This is clearly a member of the H. calyculus-H. conscripturn series but is probably worth maintaining as a distinct species because of its narrower ascospores and rather shorter asci.

Sorokina lignicola (Rodway) Dennis, comb. nov.
Rhizina lignicola Rodway in Pap. & Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania 1924, 117 (1925).

Apothecia solitary or gregarious, superficial; disc convex, then flattened with recurved margin, black, up to 2.5 cm. diameter; receptacle thin, pruinose, concolorous, sessile. Flesh about 0.5 mm. thick, composed of light brown, loosely woven, hyphae 3-4 µm wide; excipulum thin, very dark brown, with thinwalled, subglobose cells, I0-15 µm diameter, becoming scurfy ; asci cylindric-clavate, 80-90 x 5-6 µm, 8-spored, apex not blued by Melzer's reagent ; ascospores uniseriate or biseriate above, elliptical, I -septate, hyaline, then light brown, often appearing faintly longitudinally striate with about 4 striae visible at one time; paraphyses slender, I µm. thick, tips agglutinated by a brown matrix. On rotten wood.

TASMANIA West coast, December 1923, Typus in Herb. Tasmanian Museum.

This is doubtfully distinct from S. microspora (Berk.) Sacc., from Venezuela, which, however, has slightly smaller ascospores, 6-7 x 2.5-3p with less distinct striae. Any resemblance of either fungus to a Rhizina is, of course, purely superficial.