30 



himself found the plant, but published it in his Synopsis on the faith 

 of a drawing sent him by Leconte. Mr. J. B. Ellis writes me, too, 

 that from Texas he has received Laternea triscapa, Turp., and a 

 species of Lysurus which he deems new, and calls provisionally L. 

 Texeusts. Laternea triscapa, I believe, has hitherto been found in the 

 Western Hemisphere, only in Chili and St. Domingo. On the other 

 side of the globe it occurs in the East Indies. Diligent search on the 

 part of collectors may reveal in Texas the presence of Clethria crispa, 

 Turp., which is known to inhabit Mexico. In the " Medical " 



re- 



tory ' for 1808, in which Rafinesque gave a proem to his contem- 

 plated revolutionizing of the American flora, he characterized, under 

 the name of Colonnaria, a genus of the fungi, which was apparently 

 the same as what is now known as Laternea. He describes it thus : 



' Divided into four pillars united at the top, which bear seeds in the 

 margin." What he had in view was evidently what is now called 

 Laternea cohimnata, Bosc. ; unable, however, to restrain his natural 

 propensities he made several species out of it, such as urceolata, 

 truncata, etc. If my surmises are correct in regard to the identity of 

 this Rafinesquian genus with Bosc's plant, the latter then has a range 

 as far north as Philadelphia at least. Another genus of \\>ic Phal- 

 lotdei proposed by Rafinesque was ^dyct'a, which evidently was what 

 Berkeley and Curtis have since distinguished as Corymfes, which, 

 by the way, does not seem to possess very strong claims to be 

 garded as different from Cynophallus, or Muttnus. The genus is thus 

 characterized by Rafinesque :— " Tubular, perforated at the top, 

 gelatinous composed of utriculs {sic) containing the seeds " The 

 species rubra was " cylindrical, reddish, the top covered with a brown 

 mucilage." Our author had also observed (or rather he said he had) 

 a species which was entirely white, and which he names alba-fusiform. 



Both species," he remarks, " have a most intolerable stinking smell " 

 By Mr. H. W. Ravenel I am informed that the Corynites brevis'\Ti%Qx\&6i 

 m my list is merely the first Ms. name for C. Ravenelii, and was 

 probably printed thus in Dr. Curtis's catalogue by an oversight of 

 the author. 



Before leaving this subject I must allude to an interesting matter 

 connected with these plants, and one which, although it may have 

 attracted the notice of others, I have never met with in print. I refer 

 to the curious 



27. Correlation Between the Odor of the Phalloids and their 



Relative Frequency —I do not wish to occupy space in the Bul- 

 letin with matter, which without explanation, would prove intelligi- 

 ble to but few, and may therefore be excused for entering upon some 

 preliminary remarks m regard to the structure of these fungi and 

 which, although they may appear trite to the mycologist, will serve to 

 make the subject of more interest to the general reader. One of the 

 six families into which Fries divides the fungi is that of the Gasteromv- 

 cetes. The characteristic of this family is, that the plants which com- 

 pose It have their hymenium or spore-bearing portion enclosed in a 

 volv-a or wrapper making them truly angiocarpous. One of the orders 

 of this family (the Trichogastres) contains genera whose species are 

 commonly known as "puff-balls "—obi ects which are .n f.rr,;!,'.. 1 



