REDISCOVERY OF BOVISTELLA 

 PALUDOSA. 



Sixty odd years ago Leveille collected in the Sphagmim moss at 

 Malesherbes, France, a puff ball (Bovistella paludosa, cfr. Myc. Notes, 

 p. 280). One specimen is in the museum at Paris, and another of 

 this same collection at Kew. These two specimens are all there are 

 in the museums, and it has never reached me from any of my corre- 

 spondents. It is surely a very rare plant, or at least a rarely collected 

 plant. 



Fig. 248. 

 Bovistella paludosa 



During the past season Mr. Thomas Gibbs collected this rare 

 species "on the moss on the Cleveland Hills, Yorkshire," England. A 

 specimen was sent in by Carleton Rea. It proved to be the same as 

 Leveille's plant. I w r as glad to be able to cut it open, for neither of 

 the type specimens is cut, and we did not know the nature of its 

 sterile base. It has a compact sterile base of small cells, and is the 

 only puff ball in Europe with such a sterile base, excepting Lycoper- 

 don polymorphum. Indeed, when I first saw the plant cut open 

 I thought it was Lycoperdon polymorphum. 



An error has been made in our account of Bovistella paludosa as 

 to the capillitium. In the cut specimen we readily see that the 

 capillitia are not all "separate" threads, but many evidently at- 

 tached. Those in the center of the puff ball appear to be " sepa- 

 rate," and I think we have here a plant with a type of capillitium 

 intermediate between that of Lycoperdon (typical) and Bovista 

 (typical), connecting the two types. 



In the Annales Mycologici of last year (Feb., 1908), I noticed a 

 "new species," described under the name Lycoperdon Bubakii, which 

 from the description seemed to me to be Bovistella paludosa. I 

 wrote to Professor Bubak, and he has kindly sent me a specimen, 

 and it is the same species. Professor Bubak collected it in Montene- 

 gro, which is the third collection known. Bovistella paludosa is so 

 similar to Lycoperdon polymorphum that it can only be certainly 

 known by the microscope, and it is possible that other collections 

 have been taken for the latter plant. 



435 



39841,3 



