442 White: Tylostomaceae of North America 



i. Dictyocephalos curvatus Underwood, sp. nov. 



Outer peridium of a thick woody texture, bearing a definite 

 cup-like volva at the base of the stem, the upper portion being 

 carried up on the peridium, and either falling off or remaining 

 adherent to it : inner peridium scleroderma-like, rough, dark brown, 

 scaly, rather flattened sideways, rupturing irregularly, 3-6 cm. 

 high, 5-8 cm. in diameter: stem 25-40 cm. long, 3-6 cm. in 

 diameter at the summit, 1.5-4 cm. in diameter at the base, con- 

 siderably flattened, twisted, solid, dark brown within and without, 

 sulcate, the outer surface very uneven, and peeling : the collar in- 

 distinct, formed by the lower portion of the peridium adhering to 

 the top of the stem and becoming torn as the stem elongates : the 

 top of the stem is rounded and projects into the peridium forming 

 a pseudo-columella, of a yellowish-brown color, lighter than the 

 rest of plant, marked with irregular, reticulated pits, from the sides of 

 which the mesh-like tissue springs which forms with the spore mass 

 the main part of the gleba : capillitium 8-10 p. wide, mostly embed- 

 ded in the mesh-like tissue, bright yellow, cylindric, septate, not 

 much swollen at the joints, branched, the free ends rounded : 

 spores subglobose, warty, 5-7 fi in diameter. (PI. 39, 40.) 



Colorado : Colorow, BcthcL 



Plants with a strong odor which in the dry condition much 

 resembles that of the dried bark of Ulmus falva. The spores of 

 these specimens first appeared to be of two kinds — darker warted, 

 larger ones, and smaller, smooth, light colored ones — but it was 

 soon seen that this was owing to the outer coat having been eaten 

 off by the quantities of small insects by which these plants were 

 infested. 



These strange plants were found by Mr. E. Bethel at Colorow, 

 Col., in the month of August, 1897. In the notes sent with these 

 specimens to Mr. Ellis, Mr. Bethel says : " These plants are very 

 odd-looking in their native haunts ; they grow on a soft alkaline 

 adobe soil. Some of them had lifted themselves entirely out of 

 the ground, while others had the stalk standing in about one inch 

 of soil. They presented a very fantastic appearance, as there was 

 little or no other vegetation about. * * * Some of the specimens 

 were very much bent, approximating a semicircle, others were 

 twisted like a corkscrew, with the portions of the stalk split and 

 bent back. I think the chief factor in lifting the plant out of the 

 ground is this twisting and bending back of the portions of the 

 stem during dessication." 



