HYMENOGASTRACEAE 43 



oblong, 2-spored; sterigmata 2-iju long; spores light olivaceous under the microscope, 

 globose, minutely verrucose with a gelatinous sheath, 7-9/i in diameter. 



"Under leaf mould in beech forests. Europe and North America. Summer. 



"The duplex character of the peridium, the color both when fresh and upon dry- 

 ing, as well as the very thin peridium, should serve to distinguish this species from other 

 members of the genus." 



Reported from Cranberry, North Carolina. 



Leucogaster araneosus Z. &D. 



"Fructifications globose, 0.6 cm. in diameter in preserved material, snuff brown to 

 bister; fibrils large but not prominent, few, half-immersed, somewhat branched; pe- 

 ridium 130-180/x thick, simplex, of closely woven, very slender, light brown hyphae; 

 gleba white with tawny spots; cavities subglobose, filled; septa thin, 40-50/* thick be- 

 tween hymenia, compact, of 3 layers, the middle layer being light brown, the other 2 

 layers hyaline; hymenial layer arachnoid; paraphyses none; basidia hyaline, granular- 

 guttulate, 8-10 x 6-8/i, pyriform, on pedicels up to 300/i long, 4-spored; spores hyaline, 

 globose, alveolate-reticulate, angles of alveoli projecting as blunt spines, in a gelatinous 

 sheath, 8-1 lju in diameter." 



North Carolina. Summer. 

 Leucogaster carolinianus n.sp. 



Plates 27, 28 and 108 



Fruiting bodies hypogeal; subspherical, lobed, 5-17 mm. in diameter. Rooted 

 by several delicate, branched fibrils which may arise from either the top, sides or bottom 

 of the fruiting body. Mycelium fibrous and abundant in the soil, white. Peridium 

 50-220/t thick when fresh, about 60/* thick when dry, single, composed of threads 2.1/* 

 thick which soon collapse; nearly white in the young condition when first dug up, be- 

 coming antimony yellow or clay color or ochraceous buff or tawny in spots upon ma- 

 turing or drying ; peridium disappearing in small areas, either being worn away or slough- 

 ing off, thus exposing the whitish gleba; peridium in the young condition continuous 

 and homogeneous with the septa. Gleba pure white when fresh, becoming cream color 

 upon drying, composed of the numerous polygonal or subglobose sacs which are sur- 

 rounded by the tramal plates and filled when young with a gelatinous fluid in which the 

 spores are later embedded; upon ripening and drying some of the sacs come to contain 

 a large cavity, the walls of which are lined with the white spores, most of the sacs, 

 however, are filled with spores. Tramal plates, not measuring hymenium, 70-150/t 

 thick, usually about 100/1 thick, composed of the central region of densely packed, ir- 

 regular threads which, cut at the right angle, give the appearance of pseudoparenchy- 

 matous cells, quite variable in thickness, bordered on both sides by layers of irregular 

 threads, the walls of which become thickened and highly gelatinized as the plants 

 mature. Basidia arising from the layers which become gelatinized, long clavate, much 

 swollen at the distal end, 8.2-9.4/* thick at the end; apparently without a basal septum, 

 entire stalk 100-150/i long or perhaps longer; basidia not forming a definite hymenial 

 layer; sterigmata about 2/i long. 



Spores 4 on a basidium, ovoid, rarely globose, heavily reticulated, covered with a 

 smooth layer of gelatinous material, 8.5-11 x 11-14/x (measuring sheath), very rarely 

 abnormally large ones 14.7 x 16.8/u, these being 2 on a basidium. 



Taste faintly sweet, pleasant; odor slight, not unpleasant, faintly nutty, becoming 

 like machine oil as the fungus matures. 



