150 REV. M. J. BERKELEY ON TWO NEW GENERA OF FUNGI. 



In the fortieth tahle a figure is given of a Phallus which has puzzled all succeeding 

 botanists. Paulet copies it indeed in his large treatise on Fungi, colouring it after the 

 description, and proposing it as a true figure of Phallus caninus, Hudson, to which how- 

 ever it bears at first sight but a remote resemblance. Fries says of it, under Phallus 

 caninus, " Phallus exilis Marattse, Batt. Arim. p. 76. t. XL. F. nisi prsecedentis icon 

 erronea affinis species*." It seems, however, judging from the other figures contained in 

 the volume, impossible that he should have gone out of his way to make anything so 

 unlike the ordinary form of fungus in question. The account besides is too circumstantial 

 to admit of much doubt. The fungus, Battarra informs us, was found by Father Maratta 

 in the neighbourhood of Borne (ultra Genzanum), on the 5th of October, 1736, in a wood 

 known by the name of Li Disertini, and communicated to the author in May 1754. 

 Several specimens were found in a heap of rotten leaves. The volva is described as dirty 

 white, coriaceous, and filled with a mucilaginous substance as in other species of Phallus. 

 From this arose a club-shaped cellular receptacle, hollow within, the upper part being even 

 and solid within (meaning probably that it was imperforate), and covered with a crust 

 which was red when the fungus was young, but when it had arrived at maturity, the top 

 was green, with a zone of red beneath it, the lower portion of the stem being dirty white, 

 sprinkled with reddish brown superficial specks. When the fungus was passed maturity, 

 the upper portion passed into a foetid fluid. 



It should seem then that Battarra did not indeed see the fungus when fresh, and that 

 his figure was taken from a dried specimen, for he says nothing of any drawing ; but it is 

 very difficult to conceive how a fungus tapering to a point, as exhibited in Sowerby's figure 

 of Phallus canmus, could by any mode of drying assume the broadly clavate form exhibited 

 by the figure. 



A fungus, however, has been lately found by H. W. Bavenel, Esq., near the Santee 

 Biver, South Carolina, which exhibits the peculiar form of that of Battarra, and when for- 

 warded to me by the Bev. M. A. Curtis, was noticed as differing greatly in structure from 

 other species of Phallus, in its not showing the slightest distinction between the stem and 

 hymenium. It is true that at a later period specimens of the same species were found by 

 Mr. Bavenel exhibiting the same form as that of Phallus caninus, but with the ample 

 hymenium more clearly confluent with the stem, which differs but slightly from it in 

 appearance and structure, and always perforated at the apex, while the loose cellular pale 

 stem of Phallus caninus, at the first glance, is distinct from the short and more minutely 

 cellular head. Excellent specimens of both, preserved in spirits, enable me to speak with 

 the greater confidence, though my first observations were founded on the dried specimens 

 only. As then two forms so widely different occur in a species analogous to Phallus 

 caninus, though not identical with it, it is very possible that a clavate form of Phallus 

 caninus may also exist, and that Battarra's figure is due to such a variety. This would be 

 pretty well established if it were positively clear that the head in Maratta's plant is imper- 

 forate, but as he used the word ' perforate ' in the description of other species, he would 

 scarcely have omitted it in the present instance, and the phrase alluded to above may 

 therefore be considered as intended to indicate something different from the more common 



* Two misprints in the above citation are corrected. 



