3 



lobes at the base, characters not shown by our plant. The scales in 

 our plant are thin, whitish or brownish and generally appressed and 

 spot-like. Sometimes they are evanescent in the dried specimen, 

 but generally they are distinct. The internal mass or hymenium is 

 at first white and seems to vary somewhat in its appearance. Miss 

 Barnett says concerning these fungi, that, when cut, the inside 

 resembles white crape all crumpled up, but after exposure this 

 becomes brown and then dusty like ordinary Lycoperdons. Prof. 

 Bessey writes that, upon cutting open one or two of these fungi, he 

 observed a most remarkable regularity in the spore-bearing surfaces, 

 and that they bore a resemblance to the gills of unexpanded .Agari- 

 cini. The arrangement of the variously folded and united hymenial 

 plates and their intercellular spaces is clearly not uniform, but I 

 doubt if any characters for specific distinction can be drawn there- 

 from. I certainly find no satisfactory characters for distinguishing 

 the Pennsylvania from the Iowa specimens. This species (and 

 indeed the whole genus) is very interesting, affording as it does 

 beautiful connecting link between the Hymenomycetous Agaricini 

 and the Gasteromycetous Trichogasters. The distinct stem shown 

 by some of the Wisconsin specimens adds another feature of resem- 

 blance between the two groups, for it would be difficult without a close 

 examination to say that one of these stipitate specimens was not an 

 unexpanded Agaric. When mature, the spores may, by sudden 

 pressure, be expelled through the chinks of the peridium in little 

 smoke-like puffs, in the same manner as the spores of puff-balls. 



One other species of Secotium has occurred in this country, 

 viz., Secotium Texense^ B. & C, which, according to the description, 

 has the hymenium black, the spores but .0002 of an inch in diam- 

 eter and the stem ventricose and three inches high. 



Note. — I have just received specimens of Secotium IVarnez, with 

 notes thereon, from Miss E. Butler of Minnesota. These indicate 

 a still greater variation in the specific characters than that provided 

 for in the description already given. First ; the scales of the peri- 

 dium are sometimes quite thick and broad, and are somewhat reflexed 

 so that they give to the plant a rough or even a shaggy appearance. 

 Second ; the size is sometimes greater than the dimensions given in 

 the description. One specimen before me measures five inches in 

 length and the same in breadth in the widest part, and that too in 

 the dried state. In the fresh condition it would be likely to be still 

 larger. Third ; the plants sometimes grow in tufts or compact 

 clusters. The large specimen already mentioned is irregular in shape, 

 the irregularity having been produced by the crowded mode of 

 growth and the mutual pressure of contiguous individuals. The 

 smallest specimen of the group from which the large one was taken 

 is only three-fourths of an inch high and broad in the dried state. 

 Miss Butler mentions two clusters or colonies, one composed of ten, 

 the other of thirteen individuals. She says of the specimens, ** they 

 grew among rank weeds on waste land where garbage had been 

 thrown." It is possible that in such situations they grow more 

 luxuriantly than in open fields. Most of the Minnesota specimens 



