124 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



seemed to be no question as to the genus to which it 

 belonged. However, it must be admitted that we know 

 so little about the natural relationships of the mush- 

 rooms that we do not know how dependable certain 

 characters, such as the presence or absence of an an- 

 nulus, are and there is a question in my mjnd as to 

 whether this plant may be an exannulate form of Aman- 

 ita verna. I was influenced to think of this by the fact 

 that Mr. Scott wrote that this plant grew in very sandy 

 soil in oak woods along with Amanita verna. However, 

 on our present basis of classification, this plant seems 

 to belong unquestionably to the genus Amanitopsis. 



The only species of Amanitopsis that I know of with 

 adnate gills is A. adnata Smith. Our plant agrees with 

 this species in many respects but ditfers from it in cer- 

 tain particulars. The cap of A. adnata is pale yellow 

 and the volva is more lax and not so conspicuous as in 

 our plant. Furthermore, the spores of our plant are 

 narrower than those of A. adnata. The measurements 

 given by Moffatt (3) for the spores of A. adnata are 

 10 by 8 microns while those in our plant measure 8 to 12 

 by 2 to 5 microns. In order to have a designation for 

 the plant I am tentatively calling it Amanitopsis adnata 

 var. alba. 



PHALLUS IMPUDICUS. (FiG. 4) 



Phallus (or Ithyphallus) impudicus, the common stink- 

 horn fungus, usually grows about 12 cm. tall, has a stalk 

 about 2 cm. in diameter and a volva about 4 cm. in diame- 

 ter. Early in July, 1921, after a series of rainy days 

 there came several warm, clear days. During this time a 

 large number of fruit bodies of Phallus impudicus ap- 

 peared on a lawn in Urbana, Hlinois, and these showed 

 a greater variation in size than any I had seen before. 

 The largest fully expanded fruit body was 15 cm. tall 

 by 21/^ cm. in diameter of its stalk, and its volva was 4 

 cm. in diameter, while the smallest specimen was 7l^ 

 cm. tall, its stalk 1 cm. in diameter and its volva 2 cm. 

 in diameter. The eggs likewise varied greatly in size, 

 the largest measuring 41/2 by 61/2 cm. and the smallest 



