BOUDIERA 53 



beginning by a dark-brown spot in the center of the upper 

 surface and expanding until it covers all of the exposed surface 

 of the apothecium, convex-hemispheric, even or becoming con- 

 volute and umbilicate, reddish-l)rown to brown, and velvety 

 in appearance due to the stout paraphyses which extend far 

 beyond the asci; asci clavate above, tapering below, never 

 protruding so far as noted, reaching a length of 300-350 /jl and 

 a diameter of 40-50 m; spores at first irregularly bunched near 

 the end of the ascus, gradually spreading, finally becoming 

 1-seriate, at first smooth, filled with oil-drops and surrounded 

 by a broad, hyaline band, gradually becoming sculptured, reaching 

 a diameter of 25 /x excluding the sculpturing, or 35 n including 

 the sculpturing; spore-sculpturing becoming more pronounced 

 with age, often assuming the form of reticulations, later strongly 

 echinulate, the spines reaching a length of 4-5 /x and a diameter 

 of 2-2.5 n at their base, straight or bent at their apices and 

 often with a trace of ridges connecting their bases; paraphyses 

 very stout, septate, brownish, reaching a diameter of 12-15 fx 

 at their apices. 



On damp clayey soil in swampy place in the margin of 

 woods. 



Type locality: Iowa City, Iowa. 



Distribution: Iowa; also in Europe. 



Illustrations: Jour. Myc. 11: pi. 75; Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist. 

 State Univ. Iowa 6: pi. 6; Mycologia 6: pi. 123, f. 7-10; Bull. 

 Acad. Sci. Cracovie 1909: 88,/. 3, and 89,/. 4. 



ExsiccATi: Rehm, Ascom. 1601. 



This species was collected in abundance in a ravine near 

 Iowa City when the writer first undertook the study of the 

 Discomycetes in 1904, and although it was later reported from 

 central Europe, it has never again been encountered in America. 

 The species differs only slightly from the preceding, which was 

 collected once in Maine by Dr. Roland Thaxter. This is the 

 extent of our knowledge of this genus in America. 



The writer suspects that Sphaerosoma alveolatum McLennan 

 & Cookson (Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria II. 35: 153. 1923) is closely 

 related to, if not identical with, the above. 



Doubtful Species 



Boudiera marginata Phill. & Hark. Bull. Calif. Acad. Sci. 1: 25. 1884. 

 This species is reported on rabbit's dung from California and is said to be 



