north, or west." Since the above has been in type, we received from 

 Mr. Mackintosh a specimen collected near Boston. Whether it is a 

 late introduction or an established plant we do not know, but it is cor 

 tainlv very rare in the east. In this connection it may not be amiss to 

 state that previous to the past year (1905) the plant was unknown in 

 Europe and that two of my European correspondents sent me spec!- 

 mens. Rev. Merino, Spain, and Professor Plottner, Germany. It is 

 one of three "puff balls" I was enabled last year to point out as grow- 

 ing in Europe, of the occurrence of which in their country the 

 European mycologists knew nothing. 



A NOVELTY FROM MINNESOTA. 



Had any one told me that I would receive from Minnesota a Gas- 

 trorayces of a type that can not be included in any known genus, I 

 should certainly have thought he was imagining a great deal. l'>u< 

 we have such a plant from Dr. Mary S. Whetstone, the secretary <>f 

 the Minneapolis Mycological Club, which forms a new genus which 

 we are pleased to designate under the name Whetstonia. 



WHETSTOXIA. Peridium stalked, distinct from the stalk 1>\ 

 a definite membrane. Gkba consisting of spores contained in persistent 

 cells. Capillitium none. 



WHETSTOXIA STROBILIFORMIS (Plate 90). IVridium 

 distinct from the stem, thick, consisting of a single layer and cracking 

 into large, thick, angular scales, prolonged at the base and forming a 

 rough collar around the top of the stem. In dehiscing it breaks into 

 large, irregular pieces. Stalk thick, bulbose, hard, of a firm, sub-w > > 1\ 

 texture, hollow (in this specimen). Gleba rust color, composed of per- 

 sistent cells containing the spores. The walls of the gleba cells ar 

 thin, flaccid, and in the ripe gleba imperfect and torn. Spores gl>l>(r. 

 5-7 mic., coarsely warted. Capillitium none.f Hasidia clustered, per- 

 sistent in the ripe gleba 4 



This plant is most closely allied to the genus Phellorina. from 

 which it differs in the permanent cells of the gleba. In general appear- 

 ance it resembles Phellorina strobilina of Australia. The only plant 

 we have in America that has even a general resemblance to it is 1 '< >1 y- 

 saccum crassipes, but the genus Polysaccum is not related in structural 

 characters to the genus Whetstonia. I consider it the most noteworthy 

 novelty in the Gastromycetes in America excepting the curious Dictyo- 

 cephalos curvatus. The plate (90) will be distributed with the next 

 issue. 



taken i^JflSKfaf* the peridi " le walls found mixed with the spores must not 1>. ,.- 



Patn,,il?L h ' S T ^ hHrae 

 "Pr 



