172 JOUBXAL OF THE jMlTCHELL SoCIETY [Mttrch 



Spores (of No. 1837) dusky brown, about avellaueous of Eidg- 

 wav, roughly spherical with large tubercles giving star and other 

 fantastic shapes; one oil drop, 5.5-6.5 x 6.3-7.8/x. 



A very distinct species easily recognized by its peculiar, pointed 

 brown stem with its white root, deeply decurrent spines, and vinaceous- 

 brown, scaly cap. It is new to the South, having been heretofore re- 

 corded only from Xew Jersey and Connecticut. With us it occurs 

 rather rarely in moist deciduous or mixed woods. 



Banker has seen our plants and refers them to his >S'. Underwoodii 

 with which they agree well, and they are like the type plants at the 

 jSTew York Botanical Garden and others so determined by Banker. 

 Specimens at the New York Botanical Garden of H. fennicum from 

 Italy determined by Bresadola have the same pointed base and 

 surface of cap, but the spines darker, shorter, and decidedly 

 stouter in proportion to length than in our plants described above, in 

 which the teeth are very slender. The spores are smaller than in ours, 

 being about 4.5-5.5 x 5-6. 5/i. Other good plants at the New York 

 Botanical Garden from Italy, determined by Bresadola as H. fidi- 

 ghieo-violaceum, cannot be distinguished in the dried state from his 

 H. fennicum plants just mentioned, except by the still smaller spores 

 which average only about 4.7iu. in diameter. Both of these differ dis- 

 tinctly from a good plant of S. fennicus from Karsten himself (Fin- 

 land) which has very delicate slender teeth of a lighter brown color 

 just as in our H. Underwoodii The spores of this specimen seem 

 immature and stick together and to the spines. They are apparently 

 about ofji in diameter. It would seem that //. Underwoodii is the same 

 or very near H. fennicum as understood by Karston except for the 

 smaller spores of the latter, while H. fuUgineo-violaceum as inter- 

 preted by Bresadola is a different plant with stouter, shorter, more 

 abruptly pointed teeth which tend to curl in a hook-like manner in 

 drying, and with still smaller spores. Kalchbrenner's fig. (PI. 32, 

 fig. 2) of H. fuligineo-violaceum shows color with little or no violet 

 in it, even in the flesh. The size, shape and abruptly pointed base are 

 very like our plant.* 



♦American plants determined by Banker as S. fuKgmeo-violaceus (Mem. Tor. B. C. 

 12, No. 2, 142. 1906) have since been referred by him to a new species, S. radicatus 

 (Mvcologia 5:13. 1913). 



