PSALLIOTA CAMPESTRIS 449 



indicated at r. A mature waste spore is present at w, and four 

 very immature waste spores which failed to attain even full size are 

 present at u. This surface view serves not only to demonstrate 

 the presence of paraphyses, but also to show how numerous they 

 are and how evenly distributed throughout the hymenium. 



Secotium agaricoides. In concluding this Chapter, I shall make 

 mention of Secotium agaricoides (Czern.) Holl. (=S. acuminatum 

 Mont.), a peculiar fleshy fungus which in some ways resembles a 

 Puff-ball but which, from its mode of development as described by 

 Conard, may be nothing more than a much modified Psalliota, pos- 

 sibly a near relative or direct descendant of the Common Mushroom. 



Secotium agaricoides (Figs. 153, 154, 155) was first found hi the 

 Ukraine by Czerniaiev 1 in 1845. In 1882 it was found by Peck 2 

 in the United States of America and was described by him as 

 S. Warnei. In 1903, Hollo's, 3 in his Gasteromycetes Hungariae, 

 treated of it at some length with the help of an excellent series of 

 illustrations which showed its variability in form, size, and general 

 appearance. This author examined some of Peck's specimens of S. 

 Warnei, pronounced them to be identical with the European plants, 

 and recorded $. agaricoides not only from Europe but also from Asia, 

 Africa (Algeria), North America (Ohio to Wisconsin and Kansas), 

 New Zealand, and Australia (Banks Peninsula). I can now add 

 that the fungus has recently been found in Canada, by myself near 

 Winnipeg (Fig. 155) and by Mr. Odell near Ottawa (Figs. 153 and 154). 



The fruit-bodies of Secotium agaricoides, when found upon a 

 grassy sward, look very much like small Puff-balls ; for they are 

 more or less spherical or oval, whitish, .and closely adherent to 

 the ground. However, they each possess what all true Puff-balls 

 lack, namely, a stipe which continues upwards through the body 

 of the sporophore as a columella. The body-wall (peridium) 

 encloses a compact mass of branched and much folded lamellae 

 instead of a capillitium (Fig. 154). 



1 B. M. Czerniaiev, " Nouveaux Cryptogames de 1'Ukraine et quelques mots 

 sur la flore de ce pays," Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, T. XVIII, 1845, pp. 132-157. 



2 C. H. Peck, " New Species of Fungi," Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, vol. ix, 1882, 

 pp. 61-62. 



3 L. Hollos, Gasteromycetes Hungariae, Budapest, 1903 ; Leipzig, 1904, 

 pp. 33-37, Plates III-VI bis. 



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