70 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



of a columella seem sufficient to exclude such a form from Cauloglos- 

 sum as heretofore understood, it is not clear why Professor Fischer 

 should have changed the name employed by Hennings, who, moreover, 

 could hardly have omitted all reference to a columella were one present 

 in the species. 



Whether the name Clavogaster should stand, or should be considered 

 as synonymous with some other genus is, however, of no importance in 

 the present connection, since the type species seems widely distinct, 

 generically, from the form under consideration. 



It is evident, then, that, in so far as can be determined by published 

 data concerning them, none of the forms which are above referred to can 

 be properly associated with Cauloglossum transversarium, which at 

 present must be considered to stand as the only representative of a 

 monotypic genus. As I have before shown that Cauloglossum is a 

 synonym of Podaxon, it seems desirable to substitute a new name for 

 the genus which may be distinguished by the following characters : 



Rhopalogaster nov. gen. Fruiting body clavate, stipitate, traversed 

 by a firm sub-gelatinous axil columella continuous with the stipe. Stipe 

 firm, erect with naked base. Peridium simple, continuous with the stipe 

 below and with the columella at the apex, more or less evanescent- 

 indehiscent. Gleba persistent. Tramal plates extending from the colu- 

 mella toward the peridium. Basidia clavate, in groups, 4-spored, spores 

 simple, borne on well-developed sterigmata. 



Rhopalogaster transversarium (Bosc). Lycoperdon transver- 

 sarium Bosc in Gesell. Naturf. Freunde, Berl. Mag., Vol. V, p. 87, pi. 

 VI, f. 9. Cauloglossum transversarium (Bosc), Fr. in Syst. Myc. Ill, 

 p. 61. Cauloglossum transversals Fr., Cooke in Grevillea, No. 40, 

 p. 133 (1878). Secotium transversarium, B. & C. in herb. Curtis. 



Narrowly to broadly club-shaped, 3-7 cm. high ; the distal end of the 

 columella appearing at or near the apex, either as a shallow orbicular 

 depression, or a slight protuberance. Peridium dirty brownish or buff 

 yellow. When young the gleba is dirty gamboge yellow ; when ex- 

 posed by injury becoming dirty olive brown, eventually dark. Stem 

 nearly white when fresh. Spores ovate-elliptical, 3.6-4.3 /x X 5.8-7.2 /x, 

 yellow brown, borne on long slender sterigmata. The plants grow out 

 of the bases of living or dead trees or upon rotten wood, stumps or fallen 

 logs, or among rubbish on the ground close by in wet pine lands. Sep- 

 tember-November. S. Carolina (Bosc, 1811, Curtis, 1857?); Santee 

 Canal, S. C. (Ravenel) ; Wilmington, N. C. (Woods, November, 1880, 

 Curtis, November, 1846) ; Carolina (Berkeley, 1873) ; Gainesville 



