BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. IX.l New York, January, 1882. [No- I 



Mo 



ngi in Wrong Genei 



Fy Chas. H, Peck, 



sent specimens of a 



small American fungus to Prof. Elias Fries. He gave it, in his 

 letter, the manuscript name, Leotia inflata\ but Fries, taking it to be 

 a species of Mitrula^ publishecTaT description of it in Elenchus Fun- 

 gorum, Vol i, pp. 234 and 235, giving it the name Mitrula inflata, 

 with a reference to the manuscript name of Schweinitz. ^In Epicri- 

 sis, p. 584, he repeats his diagnosis of the species thus : " M. inflaia 

 a/^/V/i7, capitulo subgloboso, inflato, stipite filiformi elongato." 



In 1878, M, C. Cooke republished this diagnosis in Mycographia, 

 p. 204, under the name Spathularia hiflata, though it is not clear 

 why the species was referred to Spathularia, for the plant has not a 

 laterally-decurrent club, an essential character of that genus. He 

 also published a figure of the plant, with the remark, "sporidiis 

 ignotis." Inasmuch as this figure gives no representation of the 

 fruit, it has seemed best to give a new one, representing the fungus 

 more in detail. The reference in Micographia, /. ^r., ^'Leotia inflata, 

 Schw., Syn. Car. 1120," is erroneous, for this number belongs to 

 " Z. circinalis,'' which was evidently intended for Z. circinans, as is 

 shown by 738 Syn. N. A. Fungi. It does not appear that Schwei- 

 nitz ever published a description of this fungus, and in the work 

 last mentioned, at number 1068, he adopts the xv2.vci^ Mitrula inflata^ 

 with a reference to the description in Elenchus Fungorum. 



Having recently found and examined fertile specimens of this 

 fungus, I have been forced to the conclusion that it belongs neither 

 to the genus Leotia nor to Mitrula, nor yet to Spathularia, but to an 

 undescribed genus of Hymenomycetes, belonging to the order 

 Clavariei and related to the genus Pistillaria. 



The plants usually grow in tufts of few or many individuals. 

 Sometimes the heads are so closely crowded that they grow together, 

 and frequently the stems are united at the base. Luxuriant speci- 

 mens are about an inch high, but ordinarily they are one-half to 

 three-fourths •£ an inch high. At first they are pure white, but 

 with age the heads or clubs acquire a yellowish tint and then soon 

 decay. The stems often remain firm and upright after the heads 

 have decayed. The walls of the hollow club are very thin but 

 rather tough, and when moist they will stretch considerably before 

 the tissue will separate. Oblong, club-shaped bodies are scattered 

 here and there in the hymenium which covers the head or club. 

 These bear a strong resemblance to asci, and they may possibly have 

 been thought to be such by those authors who first referred the 

 fungus to Ascomycetous genera ; but I am confident that they are 

 not asci. I have not been able to detect spores in them, even in 

 specimens which produced spores in abundance. They are 

 usually a little narrowed or even contracted just below the 



