An Interesting Nicaraguan Puff-Ball. 



By t. h. macbride. 



Among the fungi brought from Nicaragua by Mr. C. L. 

 Smith are half a dozen puff-balls unlike anything seen in this 

 part of North America. They are brick-red in color, cespi- 

 tose, and probably represent the species established by Berke- 

 ley from the study of a specimen sent him undetermined by 

 Montague. In the London yoiirnal of Botany, May, 1888, 

 the species is thus noticed by Massee : 



" BovisTA LATERiTiA Berk. In Herb. No. 4593. Subglo- 

 bose; cortex evanescent; peridium pale, thin; mass of spores 

 and exceedingly dense capillitium bright rust-color; threads 

 thick-walled, brown, branched, acute spores spherical, coarse- 

 ly warted, pale brown, 8 ^. in diam. (Type in Herb. Berk. 

 4593. Sent as a queried specimen by Montague). About 

 i^ in. in diam. Locality not known." 



Our specimens may be thus described: 



Peridium sessile, rootless, m3-celium-attached, becoming 

 free, cespitose, globose or more or less compressed by mutual 

 interference, two to four centimeters in diameter, smooth, 

 tough, persistent, opening irregularly, dull red; capillitium, in 

 mass cottony or felt-like, elastic, dull brown with a purplish 

 tinge, crowded with spores; columella none; capillitial threads 

 under the lens, pale brown, delicate, long, slender, branching 

 freely, hardly larger than the diameter of the spores; spores 

 in mass reddish, under the lens opaque, globose, spinulose, 



5-6.25 /z. 



It will be seen that the descriptions agree generally except 

 in the spore-measurements. It is probable therefore that we 

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