In internal characters this is much like Arachnion album, but the 

 peridium characters are so different that I at first took it foi a Sclero- 

 derma. The only collection is from Miss A. V. Duthie, South Africa. 

 (Cfr. Myc. Notes, page 538, where a figure of the plant is given.) 



ARACHNION GIGANTEUM, FROM MISS A. V. DUTHIE, 

 SOUTH AFRICA (Fig. 919). Plant 5 to 7 cm. in diameter, globose, 

 with a few mycelial roots. 

 Peridium thin, fragile, 

 smooth, dark fuliginous. 

 Gleba ash gray, like grains 

 of sand. Peridioles with 

 rather firm walls, globose 

 or oblong, 200 to 400 rm'c. 

 in diameter. Spores glo- 

 bose, 8 mic. in diameter, 

 smooth, very pale colored, 

 without pedicels. 



We have been so ac- 

 customed to consider 

 Arachnion as our genus of 

 smallest puff-balls that 

 when we first saw this 

 large specimen (Fig. 919, 

 natural size) we did not 

 believe it would prove to 

 be an Arachnion. It was 

 very fragile, and was 

 largely broken up before 

 we could photograph it. The specimen is from Miss A. V. Duthie, 

 South Africa, and is the second species that she has added to the 

 genus. 



THE MESOPODIAL LASGHIAS. 



The genus Laschia embraces the gelatinous, poroid species. 

 Most of them are quite small, and ses- 

 sile or pleuropodial. The mesopodial 

 species are very few, only four being 

 known as follows: 



LASCHIA STAUDTII (Fig. 

 920). Pure white, glabrous, gelati- 

 nous. Stipe 1-2 inches long, meso- 

 podial, white, smooth. Pileus con- 

 vex, smooth. Pores medium, shallow. 

 Cystidia and crested cells none. 

 Spores oblong, 4x6 mic. The collec- 

 tion sent by Dr. Cleland is the first 

 made in Australia and the second 

 known. A collection reached Hen- 

 nings from Kamerun, Africa, and was 

 named as above. It is preserved in 

 alcohol at Berlin, and our photograph 

 645 



Fig. 919. 



Fig. 920. 



