201 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



places in woods. I have met with them beside highways that inter- 

 sected densely wooded districts. The passer-by is attracted not only 

 by theif stately 2:)roportions but by their terrible odor. In consequence 

 of their well merited reputation for loathsomeness we have reason to 

 congratulate ourselves that they are never plentiful. One dozen plants 

 would make a neighborhood uninhabitable. Crowds of flies generally 

 hover around ready to devour the, to them, tempting gelatine with 

 which they are enveloped. Beetles devour them rapidly, but insects with 

 suctorial mouths seem to clean them up and put them in better trim for 

 the collector. Corynites Ravetielii, B & C. which is also a member 

 of this very interesting family of fungi termed Gasterontycetes, order 

 Fhalloidei, has appeared in the woods near Baltimore for the past five 

 years, but never in large quantities. It rarely measures over 5 inches 

 in height, but it is rendered attractive by its bright pink or red color. 

 The spores are external and the apex is perforated as in Phallus., but 

 it differs from it in having a pileus or hymenium confluent with the 

 stem. It generally comes in the eaiiy part of June and continues at 

 intervals until the last of August. It has an exceedingly disagreeable 

 odor. One plant in a room is sufficient to disgust the olfactory nerves. 

 The spores of these plants are in liquid and therefore cannot be carried 

 through the air by the wind. What if we have an entomophilous 

 division in fungi ? Their fetid odor accompanied by a feast of gela- 

 tine is doubtless as necessary to them in the way of attracting insects, 

 and thus disseminating their spores, as bright colors and honeyed nec- 

 taries are to flowers in the way of insect fertilzation. 



In June and July the only plants that appeared in anything like 

 profusion were A. {Nancoria)semwrbicularis, 'QxxW. ,Si\-\d Rttssula vircscens, 

 Fr. The latter with one or two exceptions was remarkably perfect in 

 configuration and color. The same might be said of the former which 

 crowded into lawns, giving among other evidence of its identity a stipe 

 which had a distinct and separable pith. Its small hemispherical or 

 expanded pileus, smooth, viscid and ochraceous, lights up the green 

 grass on a lawn as if trying to compete with its more brilliant phteno- 

 gamous neighbor, Ranunculus bulbosus. 



In July I found several plants in the woods near Baltimore that I 

 had never before met with. Some were new to science, others were 

 not. Among the latter were A. {Amanita) volvatus, Peck, remarkable 

 for the beautiful brown floccose edges of the lamellae. A. {Pleurotus) 

 sapidus, Kalch , grew in large imbricated bunches on an Oak stump. 

 A. {Fsalllota) silvatkus, Scha^ff, grew solitary and gregarious in open 

 places in woods. This is quite a pretty fungus with not a very pleas- 

 ant odor. It tasted strongly of bitter almonds. 



A. {Collvbia) radkatus, Relh., has generally been plentiful in all 

 woods near Baltimore, but in July I found only one plant, that one 

 was large and perfect. I do not knovv a more variable Agaric than 

 this. The pileus is at times ochraceous, then various shades of brown, 

 then bright yellow, then olivaceous, commonly iy^-2 inches across, 

 smooth, scarcely umbonate, more or less glutinous ; lamella; adnate or 

 with a decurrent tooth ; stipe 3-4 inches high, pallid, often white, at 

 times slightly striate, attenuated at tlie apex, more or less enlarged at 



