Catastoma Pila is a plant that I have known several years. I received 

 it first from W. H. Long, Jr., Texas, and I wrote Mr. Long it was a new 

 species and urged him to name and describe it. Mr. Long has been too long 

 about it. It has since reached me from other correspondents, both North and 

 South America. Its characters are the purplish color of both gleba and 



Fig 254 

 Catastoma Pila. 



peridium, and the rough, short, pedicellate spores (the pedicels are not shown 

 in Mr. Fries' figure). In general appearance and even in size it closely re- 

 sembles our Bovista Pila of the United States, so that the plant is well named. 

 Tylostoma leiospora is also proposed as a new species, but Tylostoma is 

 a difficult genus and I would prefer not to pass on a collection without a 

 comparative study. 



MILK IN POLYPORUS. 



"During August and September I had the opportunity to observe Polyporus 

 sulphureus in every stage of growth in great abundance. During the stage 

 while the pores were attaining growth, usually three or four days, the fungus 

 was invariably filled with yellow milk. In many cases this ivas so abundant 

 that it dripped from the fungus when broken. August was a month of abundant 

 rain in New Hampshire. I have not had an opportunity to observe the growth 

 of this plant so carefully in dry weather, so that I can not state whether the 

 plant would always be milky in dry weather. This is the only Polyporus 

 that I have observed which is really milky, though I have found a number 

 of species which in wet weather are filled with moisture and under certain 

 atmospheric conditions appear to secrete a drop of clear fluid, as for example 

 in Polyporus circinatus. It is always in a young stage of the plant, and is in 

 some cases slightly turbid as it exudes from a broken plant." Theodate L. Smith. 



THE GENUS MATULA. An investigation at Kew convinces me there 

 is no valid reason for not taking the- generic name Matula. Berkeley first 

 published it as Artocreas but that was only an unintentional transposition for 

 Michenera, for he refers the Ceylon species (Matula poroniaeformis) to a 

 genus previously published from Cuba (Micheneri Artocreas) and transposes it 

 (Artocreas Micheneri). An examination of the specimens from Cuba and 

 Pennsylvania shows both to be co-generic (at least to all appearances) and very 

 different from the Ceylonese and Brazilian genus Matula. 



CORRECTION. The statement in Letter No. 23 that Fomes pomaceus 

 is not Polyporus fulvus of Scopoli was due to an error of the type. I do 

 not know Polyporus fulvus in the sense of Scopoli, and I question if any 

 one knows much that is definite on that score. 



443 



