112 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



mm. long, or rarely with only a rounded umbo. Mycelium strictly basal and radicating 

 by flocculent strands from a central basal point ; outer surface felted or nearly smooth, 

 almost clean or at times with a few bits of rotten wood or leaves, not cracking, with some 

 tendency for outer layer to separate on the rays which are 6-9, pliable, thin, expanded, 

 with the tapering rips revolute; fleshy layer reddish brown, thin, adnate, somewhat 

 cracked. Spore sac 10-13 mm. broad, sessile, surrounded below by the saccate base, 

 smooth, brownish drab to gray-drab; peristome silky, paler or nearly concolorous, 

 distinctly or rather vaguely limited. Columella not obvious. 



Spores (of plant from Asheville) spherical, dark, minutely but clearly warted, 

 2.2-3.3/*, distinctly smaller than in the southern form. Capillitium threads about the 

 color of the spores or paler, 5-7.5/* thick. 



Gregarious on leaves of deciduous trees with a tendency to crowding, which is more 

 or less obvious in most collections. Apparently rare. We have not found it at Chapel 

 Hill. 



Neither this nor the southern form can be distinguished from G. triplex by the 

 absence of point on the buttons, as there is a point or umbo present both when fresh 

 and dry. Buttons in the same collection may vary from slightly umbonate to pointed 

 like our photograph of the Asheville collection. Hollos, Morgan, Trelease, and 

 Lloyd include our U. S. American plant in G. saccatus. Hollos separates it correctly 

 from G. lageniformis by its soft outer peridium which is usually free from trash. It 

 is further separated from that species which has a firm, hard outer surface by the absence 

 of longitudinal surface cracks that are usually present in the latter, and, in the northern 

 form, by the smaller and less rough spores. Hollos is wrong in considering G. velutinus 

 the same as G. saccatus. The former is very easily distinguished from G. saccatus by 

 its larger size, firmer, harsher, paler, more spongy-looking and more separable surface 

 layer. 



At the New York Botanical Garden is a collection that we take to be this (Gentry, 

 coll. Two buttons and an open plant; no data). The buttons are larger than in the 

 others, 2.2 cm. thick and up to 2.6 cm. tall including the point, which in one is about 

 1 cm. long, in the other about 4 mm. Surface layer soft and felted, very clean except 

 on the base, separating in places from the middle layer ; mycelium attached to a basal 

 point. Spore sac sessile, mouth very distinct. Spores spherical, minutely warted, 

 3-3.6n thick. 



In the Lloyd Herbarium there are two collections of G. saccatus from Berlin 

 (Magnus, coll.). They are like the American plants, with surface nearly or quite clean, 

 peeling off to some extent from the tips of the rays. 



Illustrations: Hollos. 1. c, pi. 10, fig. 19. 

 Lloyd. The Geastrae, fig. 75b. 

 Rick. Broteria 5: pi. 2, figs. 6 and 8. 



North Carolina. Asheville. Beardslee, coll. 1917. (U. N. C. Herb.) 



Maryland. Plummer's Island. P. L. Rickef, coll. 1922. (Path, and Myc. Herb., Washington.) 



Ohio. Lloyd. (N. Y. B. G. Herb., 2 colls.) Spores of one minutely rough under high power, 2.3-3.1/* 



thick; in the other, 3-3. 5m thick. Also E. & E., North Amer. Fungi, No. 3417. (Path, and 



Myc. Herb.) 

 Cincinnati. Aiken, coll. (Lloyd Herb.). 

 Kansas. Fort Scott. On leaf mold, July 1902. Garrett, coll. (N. Y. B. G. Herb., no name). 



Cespitose, small, soft, surface felted. Exactly like Lloyd's plant from Ohio. 

 Missouri. St. Louis. Glatfelter, coll. (Lloyd Herb.). 

 Canada. London. Dearness, coll. (U. N. C. Herb.). 



