HARPER: TWO REMARKABLE DISCOMYCETES 79 
mine the nature of the opening. The character of the plant and 
the spores is that of Boudier’s division Opercules. The paraphyses 
are septate, a little longer than the asci, slightly thickening up- 
ward and somewhat curved at the apex, 4—6y in diameter. 
The colors of the plant are whitish or cream colored outside 
and pure white within. 
I have rewritten Peck’s description to include the form of the 
base and method of branching, as follows: 
Ascocarps single or caespitose, simple or more or less deeply 
and somewhat dichotomously divided, divisions columnar, straight 
or slightly curved, sulcate-costate and uneven; ascigerous layer 
definite but not separated from the short stem. Base even or 
slightly bulbous, interior perforated by irregular longitudinal 
cavities, separated by thin walls, whitish or brownish outside, 
pure white within, cavities lined with a regular palisade layer of 
septate hyphae; asci club-shaped, IO-I2 X seGaawed ee 
slightly longer than the asci, rarely branched, septate, 4—6y in 
diameter; spores tuberculate, hyaline or slightly aca, elliptical, 
10-13 X 18-24. 
Varying greatly in size, 5-35 cm. high, 2-5 cm. thick. 
Growing on the ground among grass or dead leaves in mixed 
woods. 
Underwoodia columnaris is not closely related to any known 
discomycete. It forms a monotypic genus, as the term is usually 
understood. It appears to be the only representative of its group. 
The group arrangement is especially applicable to the large 
discomycetes, for the groups are few and well marked; and, while 
the forms within them are closely related, the kinship of the groups 
themselves appears remote. Apart from Underwoodia there are 
only seven groups in the family Helvellaceae in our region: the 
Morchella esculenta, Morchella hybrida and Verpa digitaliformis 
groups in the Morchella-Verpa series and the Gyromitra esculenta, 
Gyromitra infula, Helvella crispa and Helvella elastica groups in the 
Gyromitra-Helvella series. In the Geoglossaceae there may be 
about thirteen groups, nine of which are in the large Geoglossum 
series and one each in Spathularia, Cudonia, Leotia and Vibrissea. 
The groups are also few and well defined among the larger Peziza- 
ceae. The order Helvellales is based on little more natural re- 
lationship than that its members are the large conspicuously 
stemmed discomycetes. 
