136 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



spreading when dry, outer surface covered at first and rather persistently with sandy 

 earth mixed with fiocculent mycelium, this slowly flaking off or wearing away on 

 exposure, leaving the surface pale and smooth; fleshy layer adnate, usually continuous, 

 dark brown to blackish; base concave below and elevating the spore sac which is sub- 

 globose with a short thickish stalk, the surface gray to brown and covered with wart- 

 like particles; mouth strongly and prettily sulcate, seated in a depressed zone, con- 

 colorous or darker, at times nearly black. 



Spores (of a plant from Lincoln, Nebraska), spherical, distinctly warted, 4.5-6.5/n. 

 Capillitium threads straight, up to 5p thick. 



A plant of the Mississippi valley and westward, seeming to prefer sandy soil. It 

 is well marked by the conspicuous granules on the spore sac, which are much coarser 

 than the fine powdery particles on the sac of G. coronatus and G. leptospermus. 



This species varies to a form with lax and pliable outer peridium like that of G. 

 mammosus and G. Schmidelii. See, for example, one plant among a typical lot of G. 

 asper from Dakota at Washington (Brenckle, Fungi Dakotensis, No. 35, in Path, and 

 Myc. Herb.) ; also in the same herbarium a plant from Texas, mixed with G. Schmidelii 

 (Ell. & Ev., Fungi Columb., No. 1620; Long, coll.). 



Illustrations: Cunningham. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. 51: pi. 2, fig. 1; pi. 3, figs. 13, 14; pi. 7, fig. 41 

 (as G. campestris). 

 Hollos. 1. c, pi. 9, figs. 12-14, 21, 22; pi. 29, figs. 24, 25. 

 Lloyd. Myc. Notes No. 7 : fig. 34; Geastrae, figs. 28-30. 

 Micheli. Nov. Plant. Gen., pi. 100, fig. 2. 

 Morgan. The Genus Geaster, fig. 1 (as G. campestris). 

 ?Rick. Broteria 5: pi. 1, fig. 13 (as G. asper, but does not look much like ours). 



Nebraska. Long Pine. Bates, coll. 



Lincoln. Webber, coll. (N. Y. Bot. Gard. Herb, and U. N. C. Herb.). 



North Dakota. Kulm, coll. (N. Y. Bot. Gard. Herb, and U. N. C. Herb., as Sydow, Fungi exot., 

 No. 151). 



Wyoming. Pitchfork. Davis, coll. (U. N. C. Herb.). 



Kansas. Bartholomew, coll. (Path, and Myc. Herb.). In this lot the mouth is nearly black, con- 

 trasting strongly with the nearly white peridium. 



Utah. Fort Douglas. Clements, coll. (Farlow Herb.). Granules on spore sac inconspicuous, but 

 appearance and spores as in G. asper. Spores spherical, irregularly warted, 4.4-5.5/1, rarely 

 up to 611 thick. 



Texas. Denton. Long, coll. (Ell. & Ev., Fungi Columb., No. 1825 ; Path, and Myc. Herb., asG. striates). 



Geaster umbilicatus Fr. Sense of Morgan 



G. striatulns Kalch. Sense of Lloyd 

 ? G. Smithii Lloyd 



G. ambiguus Mont. Sense of Hollos in part 



Plates 75 and 115 



Plants small, hygroscopic, the button subterranean and when first expanded 

 covered completely without by sandy earth; rays about 7-10, unequal in breadth, the 

 delicate, fiocculent outer layer intimately mixed with earth and gradually wearing away 

 to leave the rays smooth and glabrous and pale brown to pallid tan, scarcely shining 

 and not as metallic-looking as in G. mammosus; fleshy layer rather thin, smooth or more 

 or less rimose, brown to blackish. Spore sac 7-12 mm. thick, sessile, pale tan to dark 

 brown, minutely furfuraceous until old; peristome prettily and regularly plicate-sulcate, 



