FOSSIL FUNGI AND GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 83 



crystalliniis, and this in turn by the white flecks of Oospora scabies. 

 Coprinus stcrcoraritis usually completes this series of coprophilous 

 fungi generally found on horse dung. Sometimes the Mucor is para- 

 sitized by Piplocepkalis and sometimes by Chatocladium. Peziza 

 coccinea is attached to dead twigs buried in the forest leaf mould, and 

 as it rises to the surface, it develops a long stipe with a crimson-red 

 saucer-shaped apothecium at its extremity. Russula emetica, R. 

 virescens, species of Clavaria and Boletus are regularly found beneath 

 deciduous trees growing out of the forest litter. The pufifball, Sclero- 

 derma vulgare, is found on the tops of old stumps in gregarious clusters. 

 Polyporus sulphur ens grows out of partly dead chestnut and oak trunks; 

 while the hymenophores of Armillaria mellea are found clustered about 

 the bases of trees beneath the bark of which the rhizomorphs will be 

 found growing. A species of Hydnmn was found a few feet above the 

 ground on a beech tree and Fistulina hepalica attached to tree trunks, 

 where the swollen base gradually blends with the straighter hole above. 

 Amanita muscaria and A. phalloides grow in solitary splendor at the 

 edges of woods and copses, while the habitat of the mushroom in open 

 fields is quite distinctive. 



The earth-star, Geaster hygrometricus, grows more frequently in 

 sandy soil, where it spreads out its peridial segments. 



The habitat of the local species of the lichen fungi is of interest. 

 The brown-fruited cup cladonia, Cladonia pyxidata, grows on stumps 

 and on the earth, while the scarlet-crested cladonia, Cladonia cristatella, 

 is found on dead wood. The Iceland moss, Cetraria islandica, grows 

 on the ground as also the reindeer-lichen, Cladonia rangiferina, in ex- 

 tensive masses. Another earth-inhabiting form is Peltigera canina. 

 The trunks of trees are marked by the presence of Parmelia perlata 

 and the fruticose bearded lichen, Usnea barhata. Smooth bark appears 

 covered with runic character traced by the fruit bodies of Graphis 

 scripta. The rock-dwelling lichens include Physcia parietina and the 

 rock tripe (tripe de roche), Umbilicaria which grows on the outcrops 

 of Octorara schists at the Gulph. 



The distribution of the chestnut blight fungus, Endothia parasitica, 

 is of more than local interest, although the agitation to control it 

 started near Philadelphia. Apparently the fungus was introduced from 

 China, where it has been found recently, with nursery stock into Long 

 Island. From the neighborhood of New York City, it spread northeast, 



