WHAT IS A PHALLOID? We presume there are very few of 

 our readers who do not recognize a phalloid when they see one growing. 

 They have one strong 

 character in common, 

 they are excessively 

 fetid. Always fleshy 

 plants, often bright col- 

 ored, they assume most 

 'strange and bizarre 

 shapes, and are objects 

 that quickly attract the 

 eye (and usually repulse 

 the nose). Phalloids 

 when young are en- 

 closed in a gelatinous 

 volva 3 or egg (fig. 131) 

 from which they usually 

 develop very quickly, 

 often in a few hours. 

 The spores of the ripe 

 phalloid are produced in 

 a greenish, mucilagin- 

 ous mass, which gener- 

 ally has an excessively 

 fetid odor. This odor, 



as repulsive as it may be FI 131 



to us, serves a useful 



purpose for the plant as it attracts flies that are a means of dispersion 

 of the spores. We shall not enter here into a review of the classification 

 of the phailoids. That we hope will come later. We shall adopt the 

 names in general use, following Professor Fischer very closely except 

 in a few instances where he has proposed innovations that we feel are 

 not as good classification as the older methods. 4 Our first few articles 

 on the subject we shall devote to a consideration and illustration of 

 specimens that have reached us from our correspondents or are familiar 

 to us from our own collections. 



^CLATHRUS GRACILIS (Plate 91). We have received from 

 H. S. James, Hamilton, Victoria, Australia, and from J. T. Paul, Grant- 

 ville, Australia, alcoholic specimens of Clathrus gracilis. This seems 

 to be a frequent species in Australia and is well represented by dried 

 specimens at Kew. While we believe that our photograph (Plate 91) 

 made from alcoholic specimens will give a crude idea of the plant, a 

 photograph made from a fresh plant is much desired and we hope some 

 of our Australian correspondents will have a photograph made for us 



We do not exclude from the phailoids the genus Phallogaster, which has the main char- 

 acters of a phalloid, but is devoid of a volva. 



fnr 4Thlls the genus " Clathrella " does not appear to us as being well founded. Laternea to 

 "sa very distinct genus from Clathrus. There never were good grounds to sink the old 

 name Phallus and substitute a new name Ithyphallus. 



294 



