as it occurs in the United States and Europe, darker in color, not so 

 red, the exoperidium is more rigid and the fleshy layer thin and 

 closely adnate. It grows in sandy places. The typical Geaster ru- 

 fescens has never been collected in Australia. Prof. McAlpine sends 

 what I take to be unexpanded plants of Geaster Readeri, which have 

 the globose form characteristic of unexpanded rufescens but much 

 smaller. 



THE GENUS CATASTOMA : Prof. McAlpine sends several 

 scanty collections of Catastomas that are unknown to me. One (a 

 single specimen) opening by a fimbriate mouth such as does not oc- 

 cur in any known species. The genus Catastoma of Australia is very 

 imperfectly known, and much more material must accumulate before 

 anything definite can be done with it. 



THE GENUS BOVISTELLA : Numerous collections of this 

 genus have been received from my Australian correspondents and it 

 is evidently a very common genus in Australia. 



BOVISTELIvA ASPERA (Plate 33): Comparison of the speci- 

 mens received from W. W. Watts with the types from Chile in the 

 museum at Paris shows some slight differences. The cortex of the 

 Australian plant is not so strongly developed ; the color of the gleba 

 is olive while in the type it is brown ; the pedicels of the spores of 

 the Australian plant are longer. I believe if we had abundant ma- 

 terial of the Australian and Chilian plants they would be found to be 

 not exactly the same. 



BOVISTELLA BOVISTOIDES (Plate 70): We have received 

 three collections of this plant, new to the Australian flora. It was orig- 

 inally named Mycenastrum bovistoides (Grev. 16-26) and is com- 

 piled in Saccardo as Scleroderma bovistoides.f Plants globose, from 

 i to 2 cm. in diameter, devoid of a sterile base. Peridium dark, red- 

 dish-brown, flaccid, opening by a definite mouth. Cortex minute, 

 flocculent coat, breaking up into little areas and persistent. Gleba 

 olive when young, dark brown when old. Capillitium of separate 

 threads with pointed branches. Spores globose (5 to 6 mic.) smooth, 

 with long (12 to 16 uric.) slender, persistent pedicels. 



Heretofore the plant has been known from a single collection at 

 Kew, made in British India. In external characters it is the same as 

 Bovistella echinella, but is a much larger species and the capillitium 

 characters are entirely different. Bovistella dealbata of the United 

 States is a very similar plant, differing slightly in cortex and spores. 



SPECIMENS IN OUR COLLECTION. 

 Australia, D. McAlpine (3 collections); F. M. Reader. 



BOVISTELLA GUNNII (Plate 70); We have received from 

 Prof. McAlpine a fine collection made by himself and also one made 

 by F. M. Reader, which are very close to the plants at Kew labeled 



fThe reference to the genus Mycenastrum is bad enough, as it differs both in capillitium 

 ( and peridium from that genus, but to refer it to Scleroderma is absurd, as it has no resem- 

 1 blance whatever to Scleroderma in any single character. 



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