54 Natural History Bulletin. 



from the state. A single specimen of Cyclomyces greenii^ 

 Berk, is of unusual interest. The species is based upon speci- 

 mens first discovered at Tevvksbury, Mass., and is not only 

 very rare as a species, but belongs to a rare genus. Only 

 four other species are known, viz: C. turhinatus^ East Indies,^ 

 C. heccarianiis Borneo, C. stereoides Malacca, C. fiisciis Mau- 

 ritius. That we should have here in North America a single 

 species whose only relatives are to be found in regions the 

 most distant possible, there scattered from island to island, is 

 a fact certainly worthy of consideration. That our particu- 

 lar species should occur in New England, and then here in 

 Iowa west of the Mississippi river is also remarkable. 



An undesirable immigrant — Solanum rostratum. As 

 illustratincf the manner in which artificial conditions affect 

 plant distribution, the case of Solanuin rostratum^ niay be 

 cited. The plant is a native of our dry plains from 

 Nebraska south and west. The species does not appear in 

 the Hst of our Iowa flora and I much doubt if it could 

 have been found here prior to about the year 1880. In 

 that year it was reported from Hamburg, the south-west 

 corner of the state. Three years ago a single specimen was 

 found by the railroad track in this (Iowa) city. Two yeais 

 ago the plant occurred in quantity about the glucose factory 

 here and on sandy banks along the river, and it is reported 

 from a similar situation at Des Moines and other points west 

 and south. In 1885 carload after carload of corn was brought 

 from Kansas and points west and south for use in the factory 

 above named. It would seem accordingly that the railroad 

 trains have in this case been the means of transporting what 

 may prove a very troublesome weed. 



A NOVEL HABITAT FOR MOULD. 



In a carboy of Hydrochloric acid in the Chemical Labora- 

 tory of the University appeared not long since a curious vege- 

 table growth. Certain small spherical bodies of flocculent ap- 

 pearance just heavy enough to keep their place at the bottom, 



