190 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



and wet composed of a thick, slimy, transparent outer coat and a thin, bright red, non- 

 gelatinous inner coat, the whole breaking up together into large or small pieces which 

 curl inward and soon fall completely away, looking like red seed in a gelatinous pulp, 

 and leaving the thin inner peridium covered with a fine cinnabar red powder or scurf 

 which as it gradually wears away leaves the peridium surface paler until in old speci- 

 mens the red may be nearly gone. Mouth composed of about 5 elevated ridges which 

 are deep red until very old. Spore sac light clear yellow. 



Spores (of No. 5521) pale yellow (about cream color), very distinctly pitted (pits 

 visible when x 670), oblong-elliptic, 6.3-8.5 x 14-20/x, rarely up to 24/^ long. 



Distinguished by short, bulky stalk, cinnabar red color of the endoperidium and 

 inner layer of the exoperidium, completely deciduous exoperidium, and elliptic spores. 

 This is a very abundant plant at higher elevations in the eastern United States, rare 

 or absent in the coastal plain. 



Illustrations: Burnap. Bot. Gaz. 23: pi. 19, figs. 3-10. 1897. 

 Lloyd. Myc. Works, pi. 8, figs. 1-10. 

 Marshall. Mushroom Book, pi. opposite p. 132. 

 Morgan. 1. c, pi. 2A (as C. lulescens). 



North Carolina. Hillsboro. (Curtis Herb.). 



Blowing Rock. Coker and party, August 1922. No. 5521 and No. 5615. In earth by paths. 



Very common. 

 Little Switzerland. Miss Osborne, coll. No. 2835. Sept. 21, 1917. 

 Brevard. Miss Cornelia Love, coll. September 1922. 

 Hendersonville. Alma Holland, coll. (U. N. C. Herb.). 

 Winston-Salem. Schallert, coll. No. C-42. On soil in shady places. 



Alabama. Montgomery. Burke, coll. (N. Y. B. G. Herb.). 



Mississippi. Trice, coll. (Curtis Herb., as M. lulescens). Spores oblong in sketch. 



Virginia. Apple Orchard Mountain. Murrill, coll. (N. Y. B. G. Herb.). 



Pennsylvania. Buck Hill Falls. Mrs. Delafield, coll. (N. Y. B. G. Herb.). 



Also represented in the Curtis Herbarium from the Schw. Herbarium. (No data.) 



Calostoma lutescens (Schw.) Burnap 



Plates 103 and 123 



Rooting stalk long (up to 6 cm.), compactly woven, yellowish, firmly gelatinous 

 when fresh, clearer light yellow when dry. Exoperidium composed of two layers, an 

 outer, firmly gelatinous, fibrous-spongy one about 1 mm. thick when wet which is the 

 color and consistency of the stalk and continuous with its surface, and an inner one a 

 little less than 1 mm. thick which is clear pale yellow, opaque and much more compact 

 and homogeneous (about like orange peel), the two layers separable without much 

 difficulty, but dehiscing together and remaining united. After the elongation of the 

 stem this outer peridium breaks into several (usually) irregular apical segments which 

 fall away and into 5 or 6 or more irregular basal segments that curl outward and usually 

 remain expanded about the base of the endoperidium like a fluted collar or less often 

 break off close to the peridium and fall away. Endoperidium subglobose, pale orange- 

 yellow (not red) , smooth, dull, pliable when wet, horny when dry, 1-1 .5 cm. in diameter. 

 Mouth consisting of 5 or 8 elevated, tooth-like lobes which are bright red within when 

 fresh, the outside paler red and the whole fading somewhat with age. Spore sac 

 bright yellow. 



Spores (of No. 1935) light yellow, globose, the walls thick and distinctly pitted, 

 giving the spore the appearance of a golf ball, 6-8,u thick. 



