BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 
Vol. Xll.l New York, April, 1885. [No. 4. 
J 
New Species of Fungi, 
By Chas. H. Peck. 
(Plate XLix.) 
B£LETUs SPH.-EROSPORUS. (Figs. I and 2)- — Pileus glabrous, vis- 
cid, reddish brown or chestnut-colored, 3 to 4 inches broad; tubes 
large, angular, adnate or slightly decurrent; stem short, about 1-5 in. 
long, bearing near the base a thick, well-developed, volva-like annulus; 
spores globose or broadly elliptical, generally uninucleate; .0003 to 
.00035 ^Ti. long, 
Wisconsin. Prof. W. Trelease. 
The specific characters here given are derived from a single dried 
specimen of the fungus. Prof. Trelease informs me that one of the 
students of the University collected two specimens of the plant, but 
^0 notes concerning it were preserved. Consequently its colors and 
some of its characters in the fresh state cannot now be accurately 
given. ^ Ordinarily I should not feel justified in attempting to describe 
a species under such circumstances and from so scanty material, but 
tins species is evidently so remarkable and so distinct in two of its 
characters that it seems worthy of some notice. The first and most 
rotable character is found at the base of the stem. I have called it 
a volva-like annulus. It appears in the dried specimen very much 
as if it were a real volva, whose ruptured, spreading margin forms a 
cup-like annulus. Still, it may be only a thick peronate or sheathing 
^^il, and as such I prefer to consider it, though it is unlike that of 
any other species of Boletus known to me. The other noticeable 
character is found in the spores. These are almost globular, while 
in other Boleti they are generally fusiform or oblong-fusiform. Such 
a departure from the usual form is the chief distinguishing character 
of the genus Strobilomyces, Berk., and it is also given as the most 
av'ailable means of distinguishing Paxillus poroses from species of 
Boleti. Fries did not consider such a variation in the spore-char- 
acter a sufficient ground for the removal of a species from the genus 
Boletus^ but, when combined with such an annulus as we have in this 
species, the two together seem to be of greater importance and may 
yet render the formation of another genus desirable. It is to be 
'loped that the young plant may be observed and the real nature of 
^iir supposed veil or annulus be ascertained. Should it prove to be 
^ volva it would indicate a most interesting parallelism between the 
genera Boletus and A^aricus, 
Septoria astragalicola.— Spots indefinite or obsolete ; peri- 
inecia hypophyllous, lenticular, .005 to .007 in. broad, black ; spores 
