

THE GENUS MESOPHELLIA. 



As we have previously stated in our Lycoperdaceae of Australia, 

 the genus Mesophellia_is the most curious genus known of the Gaster- 

 omycetes. It has in its center a hard, white core of the texture of 

 the finest grained hard wood. The gleba lies between the core and 

 the peridium. In all species heretofore known the gleba is greenish 

 olive: in a species recently received from C. C. Brittlebank it is pinkish 

 buff, with no green tint. Also in all species heretofore known the core 

 is joined to the inner peridium by ligaments of the same hard tissue 

 that proceed from the core. In this species there are no ligaments. 

 The genus Mesophellia is only known from Australia, and excepting 

 the specimens in our museum, most we have seen are at Kew. There 

 are four species well enough represented to be named. 



MESOPHELLIA ARENARIA (Fig. 910). Exoperidium of 

 coarse, fibrous tissue. Endoperidium thin. Gleba greenish olive. 

 Spores elliptical, 5x10 mic., 

 smooth. Core attached by 

 ligaments. Although we 

 have no specimens of tnis 

 species, it is the best repre- 

 sented at Kew. It was the 

 original species, collected in 

 Tasmania, by Archer, and 

 well illustrated by Berkeley 

 in the Trans. Linn. Soc., 

 Vol. 22. Afterwards Ber- 

 keley received it from 

 Mueller, a more abundant 

 collection by Muir ("Gar- 

 den River, West Australia"), and tried to change its name to 

 Inoderma, but to no avail. The bull made by Dr. Hollos in con- 

 nection with the plant is explained in our Australian Lycoper- 

 daceae in a note on page 40. Hollos discovered it was a "new 

 genus" about twenty years after it was named. Cooke also got 

 specimens and named it Diploderma glauca. The genus Diploderma 

 of Cooke was made up of Mesophellias, Gallacea, and unopened 

 Geasters, plants without the slightest resemblance or affinity to each 

 other. Oui figures, (910), made from specimens at Kew, show a 

 specimen with the outer peridium, also a section with gleba and a sec- 

 tion showing the core and ligaments attaching it to the inner pe- 

 ridium, the gleba having been dissipated. 



MESOPHELLIA SABULOSA (Fig. 911). Exoperidium in the 

 nature of an agglutinate sand case, other characters as those of 

 M. arenaria. This was named by Cooke as Diploderma sabulosum. 

 I have a specimen from J. G. O. Tepper, but it is evidently a rare 

 plant. It may be the same as Mesophellia arenaria, but the texture 

 of the exoperidium appears to me quite different. Our figure 911 



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