Gastromycetes 



(Plate CLX.) 



Geaster. short pedicel, dehiscent at the apex by a single mouth. Capillitium tak- 

 ing its origin from the inner surface 

 of the peridium and also from a dis- 

 tinct central columella, which arises 

 from its base; threads simple, long, 

 slender, thickest in the middle and 

 tapering to each extremity, fixed at 

 one end and free at the other. Spores 

 small, globose, minutely warted, 

 brown. Morgan. 



G. minimus, when found by the 

 writer, was not tested because not 

 found in condition. It is a plant 

 beautiful in its oddity. Its seven to 

 nine outer segments of skin loosen 

 at the bottom, spring up, raising 

 the oval body of the plant with 

 them, turn their points down and 

 balance on the lower points, and look, 

 in miniature, just as would two sec- 

 tional orange peels spread at their 

 loose points if one was rested, point 



to point, upon the other. This hoisting of the spore-bearing part aloft, 

 that it may better eject its spores to the wind, does not seem to have 

 been noted by Professor Morgan. Specimens sent to Professor Peck 

 by the writer beautifully illustrated this enterprise of the plant. 



G. hygrome'tricus Pers. (Plate CLX, 2 figs., p. 580.) Peridium 

 depressed-globose, the cuticle deciduous with the mycelium; outer 

 peridium deeply parted, the segments 7-20, strongly hygrometric, 

 acute at the apex; inner peridium depressed-globose, sessile, reticulate, 

 pitted, whitish becoming gray or brownish; the mouth an irregularly 

 lacerate aperture. Threads of the capillitium rather thinner than the 

 spores, hyaline. Spores globose, minutely warted, brown, 8-1 I/A in. 

 in diameter. 



Growing in fields and woods in sandy soil. A very common species 

 found everywhere in the world. Inner peridium % i in. in diameter, 

 the segments expanding to a breadth of 23 in. The inner layer of the 



580 



GEASTER HYGROMETRICUS. 

 Natural size. (After Morgan.) 



