when received. The plants just at hand from Mr. Grant have the 

 teeth so much better developed that it is an Irpex instead of a Rad- 

 ulum, which shows how one can be mistaken as to the genera. We 

 would describe it as follows: 



Resupinate. Mars orange (when dry). Teeth at first tubercular 

 with irregular protuberances. When developed irregular, compact, 

 rigid, poroid at base, hence could be classed also as Poria. Cystidia 

 none. Basidia subhyaline in a palisade layer. Subhymenial tissue 

 deeply colored. Spores 3-4 x 6-8, hyaline, smooth. 



SECOTIUM ACUMINATUM, FROM F. W. STOWARD, 

 AUSTRALIA (Fig. 874). The Gastromycetes of Australia are re- 

 markable, not only on account of the 

 many endemic species and genera not 

 found in other countries, but the appar- 

 ent absence of some common species (as 

 Geaster hygrometricus) that occur 

 widely distributed elsewhere in most 

 countries. Secotium acuminatum is re- 

 corded in Australia and found in the 

 Handbook, but like many records of 

 this uncertain publication, there is little 

 basis for it. The little fragments on 

 which the determinations were made 

 more than fifty years ago, are entirely 

 inadequate. Many specimens of Gastro- 

 mycetes have reached me from Aus- 

 tralia, ten times more than in all the 

 other of the museums of the world, 

 but never before has any one from this 

 country sent me this species! It is a 

 species, however, frequent in the United 

 States and Eastern Europe. 



As will be seen from the photograph, 

 Secotium acuminatum is a misnamed 

 plant. This specimen not only is not 

 acuminate, but it is obtuse, and with 



Fig. 874. 



us the specimens are never more than "obtusely acute," if the ex- 

 pression can be allowed. This led to a most amusing position, 

 that our own Prof. Peck held for many years. When he received the 

 plant from Wisconsin, he was innocent of any knowledge of the ex- 

 istence of the genus even, but it did not deter him from discovering 

 that it was a "new species" of Lycoperdon, to which genus it has not 

 even a suggestion of an analogy. He called it Lycoperdon Warneri. 

 Hazslinsky, a local collector in Hungary, who was quite busy 

 promulgating new species of Gastromycetes, none of them of any 

 value as far as I ever learned, also discovered that it was a new species 

 which he called Secotium Szabolcsense. He was quite indignant that 

 Prof. Peck had renamed his species, and published his protest, though 

 before he got through "indignating" he admitted that both his plant 



617 



