Two remarkable Discomycetes 
EpWarpD T. HARPER 
(WITH PLATES I-3) 
1. UNDERWOODIA COLUMNARIS Peck 
I have collected this rare plant in several localities in Michigan 
and Illinois. The first collection was on Neebish Island, Michigan, 
in August, 1897. A cluster of small plants about two inches high 
were found growing beside a path in balsam woods. The next 
year some larger plants were found growing among dead leaves in 
a ravine on Mackinac Island. In September three different col- 
lections were made on Neebish Island, and the photographs on 
PLATE 1 were taken. In May, 1908, the two plants shown on 
PLATE 2 were found on a hillside in open woods at Bureau, Illinois. 
A single plant was found at Neebish during the past summer. 
The species was described and illustrated by Dr. Peck in the 
43d Report of the New York State Museum, p. 78, p/. 4 (1890), 
from plants found near Kirksville, New York, and sent to Dr- 
Peck by Professor Underwood. A note in Underwood’s Moulds, 
Mildews and Mushrooms, p. 65 (1899), says that six plants were 
found in the same locality in three different years. Peck’s descrip- 
tion is accurate as far as it goes, but his account of the base and 
method of branching of the plant is incomplete. The plant is so 
unique in structure and so remarkable in habit and size that I 
have thought it worth while to discuss its structure and relation- 
ships on the basis of my specimens. 
Peck’s illustration shows the part above the ground only, and 
he describes it as stemless and everywhere acigerous. This led 
Schroeter to place the genus among the Rhizinaceae. The plant 
does, however, have a short stem and is more or less bulbous at 
the base. The lower margin of the hymenium is uneven, running 
down in points on the stem while naked strips extend upward for 
short distances into the hymenium as in some species of Geo- 
glossum. There is a definite though inconspicuous margin to the 
