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SUMMARY
A new genus of the Auriculariales is described. It is named Platycarpa because of its flattened fruit body and is based on two species, both of which are parasitic on tropical ferns. One of these, Platycarpa boliviensis, is described here for the first time; P. Poly-podii, previously described as a Septobasidium, is transferred to Platycarpa and is considered the type species of this new genus. Platycarpa is compared with Jola and Eocronartium on mosses and Herpobasidium on ferns and shown to be distinct from each of these. The possibility that Septobasidium may have arisen from such a genus as Platycarpa is discussed.
The fungus described by Burt as Septobasidium album is transferred to the genus Helicogloea as H. alba because of the striking similarity in probasidial, basidial, and spore characters, as well as in the vegetative characters.
The writer is deeply grateful to H. S. Jackson, C. W. Dodge, John Stevenson, and G. H. Cunningham for the loan of herbarium material, and to Mrs. Alma H. Beers for inking most of the drawings.