2 



apex, and probably correspond to the cystidia of Agarici. The 

 basidia or sporophores are much smaller and more numerous. They 

 form a thin stratum over the surface of the globose head. I have 

 not clearly seen them with more than two spicules each. The 

 genus and species may be described as follows : 



PHYSALACRIA, Gen. nov. 

 (From cpvaaXU, a bladder, and aupa, the top.) 

 Club subglobose, inflated, thin, somewhat tenacious, everywhere 

 covered by the hymeriium, supported on a distinct slender stem. 



Distinguished from Pistillaria by the thin, inflated, bladder-like 

 club and the distinct slender stem. The following is at present the 

 only species known : 



PHYSALACRIA INFLATA.— White, becoming tinged with yellow ; 

 club subglobose, submembranaceous, glabrous, flaccid, more or less 

 uneven with irregular depressions or wrinkles, two to four lines 

 broad; stem slender, equal, firm, straight, solid, four to nine lines high, 

 mmutely hairy or subfurfuraceous, mostly caespitose; spores minute 

 narrowly elliptical, colorless, .00016-.0002 of an inch long, and about 

 half as broad. • 



Decaying wood and bark in woods and shaded places. It occurs 

 especially in mountainous or hilly districts in summer. 



The fungus described in the Bulletin, Vol. vi, p. 77, under the 

 name Lycoperdon Warnei, was referred to the genus Lycoperdon with 

 some misgivings, because the spores and capillitium presented char- 

 acters not quite m harmony with the characters- of that genus 

 Afterwards, specimens of the same fungus were sent me from Wis- 

 f °^.'^^ \y Mr. Bundy, but some of them showed a distinct stem 

 1 his indicated that the species might belong to the genus Fodaxon, 

 to which, in a remark in a paper on United States species of Lvco- 

 perdon it was erroneously referred. Since that time, other speci- 

 mens have been received from various sources, and a careful exami- 

 nation of them_ makes it necessary to refer the species to the genus 

 i^ecotium. Besides, the plant is so very variable that a more com- 

 prehensive description is desirable. 



Secotium Warnel— Peridium subglobose ovate or oblong one 

 to four inches high, one to three inches broad, squamose," white gray 

 or brownish, sessile or with a short stem, when mature rupturing lon- 

 gitudinally at the base into four to six lobes or laciniae ; internal 

 mass at at first whitish, then dingy-yellow, finally olivaceous-brown 

 or snuff-brown ; spores subglobose or broadly ovate-elliptical col- 

 ored, .00025-.0003 of an inch long, ' 



Fields, pastures and waste places. 



Warne. Wis 



con^n; W^ F. Bundy. Iowa; C. E. Bessey. ' Nova" Scotia;' A H 

 McKay. Pennsylvania; Lizzie G. Barnett 



aut^^^n*^^^ °^^V^^^^Pfci^llyin wet weather in summer and 

 autumn . The species is related to S. Szabolcsiensc, Hazl which is 

 described as having the internal mass (when matu e) chesrnut co ! 

 ored and the pendium _glabro us and splittin g^i^ ^n '^^^^ 



•Miss Barnett writes that she has also found it in May. 



