118 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



Geaster trichifer Rick 



Plates 67 and 115 



Plants gregarious to cespitose; buttons exposed, subspherical to oblong, pinched 

 below to a point and attached to ropy mycelium, slightly umbonate above, bufly straw 

 color, covered with more or less fascicled hairs about 1 mm. long; rays about six, splitting 

 to or below the middle and tending to remain upright or with tips spreading; outer 

 layer showing a distinct tendency to peel off the rays as in velutinus, but less so; fleshy 

 layer leather color, thin, adnate. Spore sac subglobose, sessile in the cup-shaped base, 

 grayish brown, glabrous; peristome very distinct, flat with elevated center, mouth 

 becoming fimbriate. 



Spores very minutely rough, 3-3.6/j. thick. 



Murrill's notes on the fresh condition say, "Outside with long, stiff hairs, ferruginous- 

 fulvous, shaggy-setose . . . fleshy layer dirty white; spore sac flattish acorn- 

 shaped, avellaneous. . . . Spread 5 cm., center 2 cm." One of the largest plants is 

 now broadly spread and reaches 4 cm., the smaller ones if spread would be about 3 cm. 

 The plants are growing on leaves and twigs and have the habit and shape of G. 

 mirabilis, which differs from the Jamaica collection in being much smaller, less strigose, 

 with outer layer not peeling, and in the smaller spores. 



The original plants were collected by Rick in Brazil. He now considers it a form 

 of G. mirabilis, while Lloyd thinks it different. The plants shown in Lloyd's photo- 

 graphs are not larger than G. mirabilis, and in fig. 1251 the surface does not appear more 

 shaggy than in G. mirabilis. 



Illustrations: Lloyd. Myc. Notes, p. 314, figs. 147, 148, and p. 804, fig. 1251. 



Jamaica. Morce's Gap. Murrill, coll. No. 739. (N. Y. Bot. Gard. Herb, and U. N. C. Herb.) 



Geaster subiculosus Cooke and Massee (sense of Lloyd) 



Plates 67, 115 and 116 



Plants with the habit of G. mirabilis, crowded and springing from copious, white, 

 felted mycelium which binds together the leaves, twigs, and sticks on which they grow. 

 Buttons 9-11 mm. broad, completely exposed, obovoid, pinched below to a point 

 connecting with the mycelium; apex concave by collapse (when dry), not pointed. 

 Surface pale buff, wrinkled, glabrous, but with the soft appearance of leather; tardily 

 opening by 6 or 7 rays, the sinuses extending into about a third of the peridium, leaving 

 the basal part unchanged as a deep cup enclosing the sessile spore sac. Fleshy layer 

 drab brown, thin, adherent, not cracked except across the bottom of the rays. Spore 

 sac 1 cm. broad, subspherical, glabrous, brown. Peristome not distinctly outlined or 

 distinctly silky, fading into the sac surface about as in G. fimbriatus, sometimes sunken 

 and then more distinctly outlined; mouth scarcely elevated, the opening fimbriate. 



Spores (of Jamaica plant) spherical, smooth, 2-3// thick. 



This is clearly distinguished from G. mirabilis Mont, by larger size, absence of 

 tomentum, obscure peristome, and smooth and much smaller spores. Even very young 

 buttons are practically glabrous and nearly white. The plant described above is 

 certainly the same as that illustrated by Lloyd in Lycoperd. Australia, etc., fig. 19, and 

 Myc. Works, pi. 100, figs. 4 and 5. He refers to it as G. subiculosus, which he considers a 

 form of G. mirabilis. From the description of G. subiculosus (Grevillea 16: 97. 1887) 

 one would hardly refer the present plant there, as it is described as furfuraceous and 



