48 MELANOGASTER. SCLERODERMA 



Melanogaster Cda. 



(/ieXa9, black; <ya<7Tr/p, belly.) 



Peridium subglobose, or elliptical, with branched mycelial strands 

 springing from, every part of the surface, fleshy, firm, not sharply 

 separated from the gleba. Basidia pear-shaped, or elliptical to club- 

 shaped, bearing 3-4, apical, or sublateral, sessile spores. Spores 

 coloured, elliptical, or obovate, smooth, or papillate. Subterranean, or 

 half buried. 



74. M. variegatus (Vitt.) Tul. Tul. Fung. Hypog. t. 11, fig. 4, and 



t. 12, fig. 6. Variegatus, of different colours. 



Pe. 2-3 cm., ochraceous, or clear yellow, then reddish ferruginous, 

 irregularly globose, adpressedly tomentose, and ornamented with the 

 brown, fibrous, cord-like anastomosing mycelium. Gleba fuliginous, 

 then black, tramal plates whitish, then bright orange. Spores brown, 

 elliptic oblong, 10 x 5/z. Smell pleasant, aromatic. Amongst leaves, 

 and twigs. June Nov. Uncommon. 



var. Broomeianus (Berk.) Tul. Sow. Eng. Fung. t. 426, as Tuber 

 moschatum. C. E. Broome, the eminent mycologist. 



Differs from the type in the tramal plates never being bright yellow, 

 or orange. In tufts of five or six, under beech, and Lombardy poplars. 

 June Nov. Not uncommon. 



75. M. ambiguus (Vitt.) Tul. Tul. Fung. Hypog. t. 2, fig. 5, and t. 11, 



fig. 5. Ambiguus, changeable. 



Pe. 2-5-3-5 cm., pale olive, becoming brownish when exposed to the 

 air, globose, or elliptical. Gleba jet black, tramal plates white, un- 

 changeable, "becoming reddish" Berk. Spores brown, obovate, or 

 elliptical, apex acute, or obtuse and papillate, 13-15 x 7-8/u. Smell 

 very foetid. Under fir, deodar, beech, poplar, and oak. April Oct. 

 Rare, (v.v.) 



var. intermedius Tul. Intermedius, lying between. 



Differs from the type in the obovate, obtuse, very rarely slightly 

 papillate spores, and in the yellowish tramal plates becoming red when 

 dried. Bare. 



Scleroderma Pers. 



((TKXrjpos, tough; Seppa, skin.) 



Peridium subglobose, obovate, or turbinate, sessile, or prolonged 

 into a stem-like base, consisting of one, or two layers, firm, leathery 

 or corky, warted, scaly, granular, or smooth, dehiscing irregularly, 

 or by the exoperidium splitting at the apex in a star-like manner, 



