in South America and the Islands of the Pacific. 447 



No analysis of the genus appears to have been given since that of 

 Micheli, which, as is usual with that admirable author, is wonderfully 

 correct, considering the state of botany in his days. I am therefore 

 happy to have an opportunity of being able to give figures from spe- 

 cimens preserved in spirits. If a vertical section be made in a young 

 plant before the volva is burst, the receptacle is found to be attached 

 at the base by a mere point ; its substance, especially the lower part, 

 is perforated with a few elongated cavities, and the centre filled with 

 an opake jelly. For about two-thirds of its length the inner walls of 

 the receptacle are studded with morchellse-form knobs arranged round 

 its apertures, hollow within, and consisting of a highly complicated 

 sinuous mass like that of the hymenium of Phallus, which contains 

 innumerable oblong sporidia. The receptacle is adorned, both ex- 

 ternally and internally, with parallel striee, which give it a very ele- 

 gant appearance. In the old plant the portions of the hymenium are 

 seen shrunk and withered, each seated at the point from which the 

 ribs diverge from the border of the apertures. The number of aper- 

 tures seems to be variable, but is always much greater than that of 

 Clathrus cancellatus, which occurs in New Zealand as well as in the 

 northern hemisphere. 



Plate XI. fig. 1. a, Clathrus crispus, natural size before the bursting 

 of the volva; b, ditto with the volva just burst; c, ditto further advanced; 

 d, section of a young plant, showing the position of the knobs of the hyme- 

 nium ; e, section of a portion of the hymenium highly magnified to show its 

 sinuous structure ; /, sporidia ; y, inner surface of a portion of an old plant to 

 show the portions of the hymenium i?i situ at the juncture of the ribs and 

 border of the aperture. 



15. Spharia polymorpha, Pers. Darw. No. 596. 

 On rotten trees in forest. Rio Janeiro. May. 



16.* Geaster saccatus, Fr. Darw. No. 664. 1493. 

 Damp, rather shady places. Maldonado. June 1832. 

 Inner peridium, when fresh, dark brown, outer lighter. 



17. Bovista cervina, n. s. Parva globosa peridio membra- 

 naceo pallido cervino, exteriori rigidiusculo ; ore minuto sub- 

 rotundo, capillitio, sporidiisque concoloribus. Darw. No. 754. 



Driest part of plains. Rio Negro, Patagonia. 1833. 



Subglobose, attached by a broad base to the earth, about |ths of 

 an inch broad, fawn- coloured ; inner peridium very thin and mem- 

 branaceous, opening by a minute round orifice ; outer more rigid, 

 soon falling off, but a portion of it remains in general about the base. 

 Sporidia globose, as far as I can see, not pedicellate, of a pale dingy 

 umber, as well as the capillitium. 



18. Arcyria decipiens, n. s. Gregaria, peridiis stipitatis 



* I have lately ascertained, in young unopened specimens of Geaster Jim- 

 briatus, the curious fact that the inner peridium with its columella and hyme- 

 nium are continued from the outer coat of the outer peridium through an 

 aperture at the base of the inner coriaceous coat, which is of a completely 

 different substance. 



