50 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



sweet potato." The odor of the sweet potato is not very different from the Lactarius 

 odor noted by us. 



1445a. Beside a low place near Mason Farm, Oct. 28, 1914. 



6026, 6042. On damp ground in pine woods on Durham road, Jan. 7 and 12, 1923. 



6061. On ground in pasture near pines, Feb. 9, 1923. 



Also Nos. 6002, 6009, 7200. 



South Carolina. Santee Canal. Ravenel, No. 883; Curtis, No. 2576. (Curtis Herb.) 

 Society Hill. Curtis, coll. (Curtis Herb.). 



Also from South Carolina by Ravenel in Fungi Car. Exs. No. 71 (Philadelphia Acad. Herb., as 

 H. Stephensii var. Ravenelii). 

 Alabama. Auburn. Earle. (N. Y. B. G. Herb, and U. N. C. Herb.) 



Also collected in Alabama by Povah, as noted above. 

 New York. Ithaca. Whetzel, coll. (Cornell University Herb, and U. N. C. Herb.). Spores 11-16.6^ 

 thick, with an imperfect reticulum. Basidia 2-spored. 



Octaviania purpurea n. sp. 



Plates 30, 31 and 111 



Fruiting bodies hypogeal, single or cespitose, subglobose, often irregularly lobed ; 

 fresh plants 0.6-1.8 cm. high by 0.6-2.5 cm. wide, drying to about two-thirds that size, 

 fleshy; rooting by numerous mycelioid, branched fibrils which extend out from several 

 points of attachment on the base. Peridium white throughout when young, turning 

 vinaceous to deep vinaceous when exposed or wounded ; retaining the vinaceous tint on 

 drying; 1-2 mm. thick when fresh, drying to about one-quarter this thickness; composed 

 in large part of small thin-walled, densely packed and considerably entangled threads 

 3-4/x thick, and a few much larger thick-walled threads, 11-16// thick, which often 

 terminate in large globose cells. Gleba pure white when young, acquiring an olive tint 

 as the hymenium and spores begin to develop, passing through olive brown to deep 

 blackish brown as the spores mature. Tramal plates pure white, becoming only slightly 

 discolored upon maturity and contrasting strikingly with the nearly black spores and 

 the more or less deep purple peridium; arising from the peridium and composing in the 

 young state by far the greater part of the gleba, persisting in mature plants as very 

 thin white byssoid plates. Cavities of gleba first arising as narrow, pouch-like spaces 

 which by growing and anastomosing, form labyrinthiform spaces, which, in section, 

 often appear in clusters, 3-8, separated by rather wide tramal plates, thus presenting 

 the appearance of several small cavities within a large one; cavities becoming only 

 partially filled with spores. Odor of fresh plants faintly like an Irish potato. Plants 

 kept covered in the ice box for several days gave an odor strongly suggestive of oysters. 

 Taste not unpleasant. 



Spores subsessile, subspherical, sometimes considerably elongated at the proximal 

 end, angular-warted, 9. 5-12. 5m thick, with a pedicel about as long as the diameter of 

 the spore. Hymenial layer, lining the cavities, composed of young and old basidia 

 which are very peculiar in that in the young state they are thick, rather short cells, 

 7.4-11.2 x 20-25;ii, which by elongating into a narrow tube, 4.4-5. 5yu thick, more than 

 double their length; mature basidium 5.5-7.8 x 30-44^, jug-shaped, bearing one apical 

 spore; collapsing after the spores are formed. 



Suitable material being at hand, it was thought of interest to study the nuclear 

 behavior in this single-spored basidium for comparison with that of the normal four- 

 spored basidium. The material for this study was prepared as follows: small slices 

 about a half millimeter thick of the youngest plants were cut and put in Flemming's 

 weak chrom-acetic acid where they were allowed to remain over night. The material 



