324 MINNESOTA BOTANICAL STUDIES. 



" PHYSALACRIA INFLATA (S.) Peck. 



" On logs in wet places. Shelburne, a small number of 

 specimens of this curious species were found on a log in a brook 

 which was nearly dry. My specimens were in fruit and I am 

 able to confirm the account of the fructification given by Peck 

 in Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Jan. 1882. The species does not 

 belong to the genus Mitrula where it was placed by Schweinitz, 

 but it is one of the Hymenomycetes, closely related to Pistil- 

 laria, as correctly shown by Peck. I could find only two spores 

 to a basidium." 



The material from which the present description is written 

 was collected by E. M. Freeman at Detroit, Minn., in August, 

 1901. A part of the material used had been preserved in 2^J 

 per cent, formaline and the rest had been dried. Permanent 

 slides were prepared by the ordinary paraffin section method 

 and gentian violet and bismark brown were employed in stain- 

 ing. The sections from which the greater part of the work was 

 done were cut with an ether freezing microtome and mounted 

 in water or in glycerine. All detail drawings were made with 

 the aid of an Abbe camera lucida. 



The plant grows upon decaying wood in shaded places or in 

 deep woods, though it seems not to need as much moisture as 

 many of the club-fungi. It grows in clusters and is | to | in. 

 in height. Stem ^ and club \ inch thick (PI. XLIX., fig. 16). 

 Many stipes come up together and diverge toward the top. The 

 plants spread apart by the enlargement of the clubs which fuse 

 on the sides where they press against each other. In general 

 appearance they simulate some of the ascomycetes of the 

 Geoglossacae, e. g., Spathularia and Mttrula, which led to the 

 assignment of this species under those genera by earlier authors. 

 They are creamy white in color except the base of the stem 

 which is black. 



Peck's description is very apt. In addition to the characters 

 pointed out by him, the following are worthy of note. The 

 stem is tough, at least in formaline material, and the central 

 portion is more stringy than the peripheral region, this central 

 portion is composed of two distinct kinds of hyphae, small even 

 threads with septa far apart (jigs. 7, 12) and larger hyphas which 

 are composed of flasked-shaped cells set end to end. Both 

 kinds of hyphae are very rarely branched and lie parallel. In 



