Rev. M. J. Berkeley, of the fifth volume of the English Flora, in 1886, ten genera and forty-eight species of Gasteromycetes have been added to the British Flora, notices of which are only to be found scattered through many volumes of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. But that which is of more importance is the total revision which the subject has undergone, principally in the hands of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, by whom the true character of the fructification in some of the noblest species of the order was first investigated and unfolded.

In justice to our local Flora it is right to state, that the same amount of care has not been bestowed upon the local species of Myxogastres as upon the Hymenomycetes and the former sections of the Gasteromycetes. In Phalloidei, Nidulareacei, and Trichogastres, out of thirty-three species recorded as British, twenty have been found in the neighbourhood of Liverpool; and one occurred which is probably new to British botany. In Myxogastres many additional species might no doubt readily be discovered, and together with several very interesting additions to our list of local Hymenomycetes collected during the present season, might properly form a supplement to the series described in the Appendices to the Proceedings of our Society.

GASTEROMYCETES.

SECTION I. PHALLOIDEI. Fries.

Genus I. PHALLUS. Micheli.

1 P. IMPUDICUS. L.

Peridium white, flexible, the size of a hen's egg, rooting, stuffed with an olivaceous jelly enclosing the receptacle which soon ruptures the peridium and attains a height of from six inches to a foot; stem very porous, surmounted by a partly free campanulate appendage with wide reticulations and a truncated apex. This, under the common name of Stinkhorn, is a well known species and is found in woods and on banks in many places near Liverpool; it is common in the Wirral and at Knowsley, Crosby, &c.

2 P. CANINUS. Huds.

Smaller and more slender than the last species; apex of the receptacle sub-fusiform, orange-red, at first covered with dark olive, green slime. Knowsley. Hundreds occurred in Croxteth Wood, October 1857. Warren, New Brighton, Nov., 1858.

SECTION II. NIDULARIA CEI. Corda.

Genus II. CYATHUS. Haller.

1 C. CRUCIBULUM.

Pers.

Cups crowded, shallow, at first closed by an operculum. On chips, Two-butt Lane, Rainhill, 1856, 1857.

Genus III. NIDULARIA. Bulliard.

2 N. STRIATA. Bull.

Cups crowded, deep, clothed on the outside with dark-brown tufted hirsuteness. Eastham and Bromborough Woods; Warren, New Brighton.

3 N. CAMPANULATA. With.

Cups gregarious or solitary, lead coloured within, elegantly shaped, widening upwards. Under beech trees, Rainhill; Botanic Garden, Liverpool.

Genus IV. SPHEROBOLUS. Tode.

4 S. STELLATUS. Tode.

The description of this species is already published in the Proceedings of this Society. Plantation, Huyton Quarry; Hangsdales Wood, Rainhill.

SECTION III. TRICHOGASTRES. Fries.

Genus V. SCLERODERMA. Persoon.

1 S. VULGARE. Fr.

Peridium sub-globose or depressed, warty or scaly, sometimes
exceeding four inches in diameter, yellowish, bursting irregu-
larly, filled with greyish flocci which in age become darker.
Not very common; in woods, Knowsley, Croxteth, &c.
Var. b. Smaller hard minutely warty generally of a light-brown
colour. Very common; woods, plantations, and banks.

2 S. VERRUCOSUM. Bull.

Peridium more fragile than in the preceding species, stipitate; stem deeply lacunose. Bromborough Wood, Nov., 1856.

Genus VI. BATARREA. Persoon.

3 B. PHALLOIDES. Woodw.

Stem woody with shaggy fibres, six inches in height, half an inch in thickness; pileus delicate, semi-oval, diameter at the margin 1 inches. In bare sand on the broken bank of a hedge, near the top of the hill, Claremont, New Brighton, Nov. 12, 1857.

Genus VII. GEASTER. Micheli.

1 G. STRIATUS. Dec.

Outer peridium expanding in from four to six star-like rays,
inner globose shortly pedicellate, of a pale woody colour;
ostiolum conical distinctly striate.
Brighton near Crosby, Oct., 1856.

2 G. BRYANTII. Berk.

On a sandy bank at Little

Differs from the preceding species in the base of the inner peridium, which is constricted so as to form a groove just above the insertion of the somewhat longer stem. Cheshire; Mr. Nisbett, Nov. 26, 1855. Not uncommon on sandy banks near Wallasey; Warren, New Brighton, &c.

3 G. MAMMOSUS. Chev.

Height two inches, diameter two inches, diameter of the inner peridium one inch; outer peridium consisting of two layers, each nearly one line in thickness, adnate for the upper half; the outer layer splits into five equal segments, curling back till their points meet beneath; the under or free half of the inner layer is not carried back with the revolute segments but stands with a broken uneven edge, cup-shaped, twice the diameter of and surrounding the papyraceous inner peridium, which is quite sessile, somewhat oblate; mouth conical, not striate; spores round, echinulate '0002 inch in diameter; colour when gathered bright nankin, soon becoming dingy. Warren, New Brighton, Nov. 14, 1857.

Genus VIII. TULOSTOMA. Persoon.

4 T. MAMMOSUM. Fr.

Inner peridium globose, three or four lines in diameter, with a prominent ostiolum; stem an inch or more in height, hard; the remains of the fugacious outer peridium form a globose bulb at the base. Warren, New Brighton; Southport, F. P. Marrat.

Genus IX. LYCOPERDON.

5 L. GIGANTEUM. Batsch.

Tournefort.

Peridium bursting in irregular cracks, sub-globose, from six to eighteen inches in diameter; capillitium olivaceous yellowish or dingy, filling nearly the whole of the peridium. If gathered when the plant has attained its full size, and kept in a dry atmosphere, the whole mass becomes extremely wet, and the peridium flaccid and tender: at this period of its growth in the open air it is usually broken up and scattered, leaving scarcely any traces; but under shelter the peridium though much cracked dries and is moderately persistent. The figures of Batsch, Schaffer, and Greville, are all excellent, and the globose figure in Sow., t. 332, seems equally accurate. The obconic form which Fries regards as agreeing well with L. bovista of Persoon, seems rightly in the English Flora, referred to the next species. Grounds of W. Bell, Esq., Pexhill; annually, in October.

6 L. CELATUM. Bull.

Peridium stoutly obconic, with a broad base, upper portion four or five inches in diameter. At the period of semi-deliquescence referred to in the description of L. giganteum, the peridium does not crack on all sides, but the upper portion sloughs away, and the capillitium escapes, leaving a cup with a ragged edge, a spongy barren stratum filling the bottom of the cup and the stem, which often remain almost unchanged for many months. There seems little doubt that this is the plant represented by the uppermost figure in Sow. p. 332. Bulliard's figure agrees well with a warty variety; but another, with precisely the same habit, is equally frequent, and is nearly smooth. Both seem abundantly distinct from L. giganteum. Batsch. Not very common. Warren, New Brighton, Ince Blundell, Croxteth.-BOVISTA FAVOSA. Rostk. Sturm's Deutschlands Flora, occurs at New Brighton.