1924] 



BURT THE THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA. XIII 5 



Fung. 6: 521. 1888; Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. (1:1**): 

 127. 1898. 



Fructification urn-shaped or top-shaped, hard, corky; hymen- 

 ium even, lateral. 



In adopting the name Hypolyssus and denning it anew, Berke- 

 ley stated, loc. cit. f * 'As Persoon's genus Hypolyssus is altogether 

 effete, and its characters are very like those of the plant before 

 us, I have thought it advisable to restore it." 



This genus differs from Craterellus by not having the fructifi- 

 cations at all fleshy and by their becoming hard when dry. 



1. Hypolyssus Montagnei Berkeley, Hooker's London Jour. 

 Bot. 1: 139. pi 6, f. 1. 1842; Sacc. Syll. Fung. 6: 521. 1888; 

 Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. (1:1**): 127. text f. 70 E. 

 1898. Plate 1, fig. 4. 



An Hypolyssus foetidus Massee, Jour. Bot. 30 : 197. pi. 325, 

 f. 3-5. 1892; Sacc. Syll. Fung. 11: 115. 1895? 



Type: in Kew Herb, probably. 



Fructifications gregarious, dirty white, 1-2 cm. high, hard 

 when dry, solid, turbinate or urn-shaped, the apex sterile, convex 

 at first, at length slightly depressed; stem slender, central, 

 curved, shorter than the pileus when mature; hymenium covering 

 the outside of the fructification with the exception of the apex, 

 even or nearly so; spores hyaline, even, 3-4 y. in diameter, none 

 seen attached to basidia. 



Fructifications 1-2 cm. high, 2-7 mm. in diameter. 



On rotten wood. Mexico, Central America, Guadeloupe, and 

 South America to Bolivia. February in Mexico, July in Bolivia. 



The fructifications are hard when dry but soften when moist- 

 ened so that they may be readily sectioned; Craterellus taxophilus 

 is of somewhat similar form but more fleshy consistency. In all 

 the specimens cited below the hymenium is too deteriorated to 

 show the basidia in my preparations. H. foetidus occurs on the 

 island of St, Vincent in the region of H. Montagnei and was 

 distinguished from the latter by Massee by fetid odor and 

 rugulose hymenium, but there is no observation on record yet as 

 to absence of odor for H. Montagnei. Mycological explorers 

 rarely note such data. 



