ing on the vigor of the plant. This sudden inversion of the inner 

 peridium is evidently a mechanical process. I do not exactly under- 

 stand it, but think it is due to the thinning of the upper walls of 

 the inner peridium , and a contraction at the opening. After the, ejec- 

 tion of the peridiole the inner peridium, which is thin and white, soon 

 dries up and disappears, hence is not seen on dried specimens. 



Fig. 2471X6). 



Sphaerobolus stellatus showing two plants that have just ejected 

 the peridioles. 



We think our photographs of the plant at the various stages 

 will make the subject plain. They are all magnified six diameters, as 

 the plant is not much larger than a mustard seed." In our last figure 

 (247) two plants are shown that have just thrown out the peridioles. 



DU RAND'S PAPER ON GEOGLOSSACEAE. 



What impresses me as being a most thorough paper on the Geo- 

 glossums and allied plants of North America appeared in a German 

 periodical recently. We have all known that Professor Durand has 

 been at work on the Discomycetes for a number of years, and this 

 is the first important result of the work. We trust he will publish 

 the remainder of the field in the same exhaustive manner. Professor 

 Durand has studied the American specimens of all the principal mu- 

 seums, both American and European, as well as having done much 

 field work. We now have a knowledge of what species occur with 

 us, where they occur, and their relative frequency or rarity, some- 

 thing that we did not have before. We are only sorry that it is not 

 in a more accessible form, for there are many collectors in America 



433 



