JOHNSTON. — ON CAULOGLOSSUM TRANSVERSARIUM. 65 



means of dissemination appears to exist except such as may be accom- 

 plished by the ultimate decay of the mature plant or its possible inges- 

 tion by animals. The history of the gleba in this respect is thus wholly 

 similar to that which characterizes the Hymenogastraceae in general, a 

 powdery condition occurring only when the glebal mass has dried after 

 decomposition. It may be mentioned that in the locality examined by 

 Dr. Thaxter it was noticed that this general decay was often hastened 

 by the attack of the parasitic Sepedonium chrysospermum. 



To sum up the development of the fruiting body : the upgrowth from 

 the mycelium is differentiated into a cortical and a medullary layer. 

 The cortical layer becomes the peridium, whose further growth is inde- 

 pendent of the medullary layer, from which it differs in the arrangement 

 of its hyphae, in that they form a loose irregular network instead of 

 running more or less parallel to form a firm subgelatinous mass. The 

 medullary layer becomes the stipe and the columella, with which the 

 hyphae of the peridium are continuous. The surface of the columella 

 becomes differentiated into folds which form the gleba. The surface of 

 these folds consists of columnar elements which constitute the basidia of 

 the mature specimen. 



History. 



This species was first described as Lycoperdon transversarium by M. 

 Bosc (3) (1811), as follows: 



" Vesseloup Transversaire. V. sessile en forme de massue irregu- 

 liere, traversee par un axe couique, de contexture fibreuse qui part des 

 racines et se termine au sommet. 



"On rencontre cette espece dans les bois sabloneux de la basse Caro- 

 line, mais elle n'est nulle part commune. Sa forme la rapproche de la 

 Vesseloup pistillaire et son axe de la Vesseloup axate que j'ai decrite et 

 figuree dans les memoirs de la societe d'histoire naturelle de Paris. Sa 

 masse est composee, comme dans les autres vesseloups, d'un reseau tres 

 serre entre les mailles duquel sont nichees les semences, mais j 'ignore si 

 elle s'ouvre au sommet ou sur les eotcs pour les repandre. Je crois que 

 ces caracteres suffisent pour en faire un genre nouveau dont feroit partie 

 ma vesseloup axate." 



This description, as well as the drawing which accompanies it, answers 

 very well for the plant under consideration, although the latter is merely 

 an outline of the specimen, indicating its club-shaped form. 



In 1829 Julias Fries (10) transferred the Lycoperdon transversarium 

 of Bosc to the genus Cauloglossum, Grev., giving the generic characters 



VOL. XXXVIII. — 5 



