LWOPERDACEAE 101 



MYCENASTRUM Desv. 



Fruit body epigcal, breaking from its attachment after maturity; peridium thick 

 and tough, splitting irregularly above. Capillitium of short, free threads which are 

 furnished with short prickles. Spores brown, spherical (said to be sessile and 2-4 to a 

 basidium in If. radkattm). According to Hollos there is only one species, though a 

 good many have been described. 



The genus is easily distinguished from all others here included by its prickly 

 capillitium. 



Literature 



Desvaux. Sur le genre Myccnastrum, du groupe des Lycoperd£es. Ann. Sci. Nat., 2nd. ser., 17: 143. 

 1842. 



Mycenastrum corium Desv. 

 M . spimdosum Peck 



Plates 62 and 114 



Plants seated on the ground, subglobose, depressed or obovate, often irregular, 

 more or less plicate or pitted below and attached by a point to the fibrous mycelium; 

 size various, usually about 4-10 cm. thick; cortex a soft, felted, whitish coat which 

 dries down irregularly and wears away slowly, parts remaining here and there as inherent 

 scales; inner peridium deep brown on surface and in section, about 2 mm. thick, tough 

 and corky, splitting tardily from above downward into unequal and irregular flaps 

 which may separate slightly or at least open widely. Gleba without a sterile base, 

 dark brown to purplish brown at maturity, not very powdery. 



Spores (of a plant from the Lloyd Herbarium) dark brown, spherical, thick-walled, 

 minutely but, under high power, distinctly marked with a more or less perfect reticulum 

 of linear warts, 8.5-1 ly. thick. Capillitium of separate, short threads with a few short 

 branches, and peculiar in the thorn-like spines with which they are more or less 

 thickly set. 



This species is abundant in the west, but rare in the eastern states. Lloyd reports 

 it from Illinois (Myc Notes, p. 120) and from Florida (Letter 62, note 441). (See 

 also Myc. Notes, p. 1173, where an error is corrected.) 



The plant much resembles a Scleroderma in general appearance, but it is easily dis- 

 tinguished by the spiny capillitium threads. It differs also in its habit of breaking 

 loose from its attachment when mature and adopting a tumbling habit like Bovista. 

 The separate threads arising freely in the gleba also recall Bovista. For numerous 

 synonyms see Hollos. 



Illustrations: Cunningham. Trans. N. Z. Inst. 57: pi. 9, figs. 25 and 26. 1926. 

 Fischer. Engl. & Prantl. Pflanzenf. I 1 : fig. 165 B. 

 Hollos. 1. c, pis. 24-26; pi. 29, fig. 31. 

 Lloyd. Myc. Works, pi. 5, figs. 1-11. 

 Lloyd. Photogravure of Am. Fungi, No. 18. 

 Morgan. Journ. Cin. Soc. Xat. Hist. 14: pi. 5, figs. 13-14. 

 Petri. 1. c, fig. 35. 



Sorokine. Rev. Myc, 1890, pi. 25 (101), fig. 354 fas var. Kara-Kumianicm); pi. 27 (103), fig. 365; 

 pi. 29-30 (105) (figs. 371-372 as var. Kara-Kumianum). 



