DEFINITION OF TERMS. 



In the description of phalloids it is necessary to use a few bo- 

 tanical terms, but they are simple and will be readily understood 

 from the following explanation. 



VOLVA. All phalloids (excepting one genus, Phallogaster) when young 

 are enclosed in a subglobose membrane called the volva. In this state a 

 phalloid can well be compared to an egg; in fact, it is customary to speak of 

 young phalloids as "eggs." The volva or shell, however, is a soft, thick, gelat- 

 inous membrane. When the plant develops the volva bursts at the top and 

 remains as a cup at the base of the mature phalloid. All our pictures of 

 phalloids show the volva at the base of the plant, at least all pictures that were 

 made from perfect plants. If there is no vclva at the base it is because the 

 illustration was drawn from an imperfect specimen. 



RECEPTACLE. This is a term that is applied to the portion of the plant 

 that bears the greenish, mucilaginous mass (called the gleba). In some 

 phalloids (such as Clathrus) the entire plant, exclusive of the volva, forms 

 the receptacle. In others, such as Simblum, the receptacle is borne on a stem. 

 Some phalloids are a simple, stem-like structure and bear the gleba directly 

 on the upper portion, then of course the upper portion of the stem is the 

 receptacle. 



GLEBA. This is a greenish, viscid, fetid substance with which all phalloids 

 are supplied. It is in fact the fruiting portion of a phalloid, for it contains 

 innumerable, microscopic spores which are analogous to the seed of flowering 

 plants. It is the gleba of a phalloid that is usually so excessively fetid. 

 This bad odor, as offensive as it may be to us, serves a useful purpose 

 to the plants, as it attracts flies and other insects that are the means of the 

 dispersion of the spores. 



STEM. The stem (or stipe) of a phalloid needs no special explanation. 

 It is used in the ordinary sense of the word. Some phalloids have no stems. 



PILEUS. There are some phalloids (the genus Phallus) that have the 

 gleba borne on a special membrane on the top of the stem. This is usually 

 conical or hat-shaped and is called the pileus. 



VEIL. A most striking feature in a few species that have pilei is a thin, 

 net-like membrane that hangs from under the pileus and spreads out as a net 

 around the stem. It is called the veil (or more correctly the inclusium) but 

 we prefer to call it the veil. 



HISTORY OF PHALLOIDS. 



We can not write the history of the phalloids because it is not known. 

 There are only five countries .in the world where the phalloids are well known, 

 viz: Europe, the United States, Brazil, Java, and Ceylon. Most of the myco- 

 logical writers have lived in Europe and the United States, and the easy, 

 conspicuous fungi such as the phalloids are well known. In Java most ex- 

 cellent accounts of the phalloids have been written by Penzig, and in Brazil 

 by Moeller. In the United States a good account of the phalloids of Texas 

 was published by Long, and in Hawaii by Cobb. 1 Very recently in fact, since 

 this pamphlet was in the printer's hands we have had an excellent account 

 of the phalloids of Ceylon, by T. Fetch. Aside from these five papers, however, 

 most of the work on the subject has been in the line of new species exploitation. 



1 Mr. Cobb marred his paper by discovering some " new species " that were only new to him ; 

 otherwise, his paper was most excellent 



