MUTIXUS XYLOGEXUS (Fig. 163). This has the unique 

 distinction of being the very smallest phalloid known. Some idea of 

 its diminutiveness can be obtained from our photograph, which is 

 enlarged six diameters. It was collected 

 by Leprieur. French Guiana, on rotten 

 wood almost sixty years ago. Three single 

 specimens, from one of which our photo- 

 graph has been made, and a couple of little 

 "eggs" are all the material that exists, and 

 it is now preserved in the museum of Paris. 

 Montagne, who describes it, states very 

 clearly that it has a "free, conical, even, 

 impervious receptacle" (pileus), and his 

 figure plainly shows a pileus. If that is 

 true, the plant belongs to the genus Phallus. 

 Leprieur sent Montagne what seems to be 

 a good drawing of the fresh plant. It ap- 

 pears to be a diminutive Phallus with a 

 definite pileus, which Leprieur indicates as 

 rugulose. Montagne placed it in the sec- 

 tion "Mutinus." but from his remarks it 

 is evident that he thought Mutinus has a 

 pileus. Some years ago at Paris, Professor 

 Fischer sectioned an egg and found the 

 gleba borne directly on the upper portion 

 of the stem, which makes it a Mutinus, as 

 the genus is now defined. It differs from all others in having a capi- 

 tate, globose mass of gleba. It is a great deal to hope, but we can 

 not but express the hope, that some one in South America, Central 

 America, or the West Indies, where this little plant probably occurs, 

 will refind specimens and send us a few in a little vial of alcohol. It 

 can certainly be known from our figure, not forgetting that the plant 

 is only one-sixth as large. 



Fig. 163. 



ITAJAHYA GALERICULATA (Plate 121). We are glad to 



be able to present a photograph made from a fresh specimen, by Rev. 

 Pere A. Schupp. Pelotas. Brazil. It is one of the Brazilian phalloids 

 that was illustrated in such a superb manner by Alfred Moller, and it 

 is only known to grow in Brazil. Its uncouth name is taken from 

 the river Itajahy of Brazil. The genus has a pileus as the genus 

 Phallus, but a different structure. In Phallus the pileus is of a firm, 

 uniform tissue, and bears the gleba on its outer surface. In Itajahya 

 the pileus is of loose, lamellate structure, and the gleba covering these 

 plates permeates the inner structure of the pileus. The photograph 

 that Rev. Schupp sends has a general resemblance to a Phallus, and 

 the small specimen is capped (probably accidentally) with a fragment 

 of the volva. The structure of the pi'leus is better shown in the sec-, 

 tional photograph that was published by Alfred Moller. and we repro-1 



336 





