42 BOTANICAL GAZETTE LJULY 



Interior of fruit body differentiated, 



Wall of fruit body very thin, membranaceous - - Eoterfeziaceae 



Wall of fruit body stout, 



Spore mass powdery Elaphomycetaceae 



Spore mass not powdery 



Terfedaceae 



Interior of fruit body with a highly specialized capillitium Trichocomaceae 



III. DICTYBOLE, A NEW GENUS OF PHALLOIDS. 



This plant was collected by W. H. Long, Jr., at Denton, 

 Texas, Oct. 15, 1901. It is peculiar and striking in that it pos- 

 sesses a dimorphic gleba, the upper part of which is traversed 

 by sterile, radiating, imbricate plates suggesting the gleba of 

 Itajahya, while the lower part of the gleba is latticed something 

 after the fashion of Simblum. From the gross characters of the 

 gleba it would seem to occupy an intermediate position between 

 the two genera, the former being placed by Fischer in the 

 Phallaceae, while the latter is a member of the Clathraceae. 

 However, in Itajahya the sterile plates are pseudoparenchy- 

 matous, while in Dictybole they are floccose, and Dictybole 

 therefore belongs in the Clathraceae. 



The upper part of the volva in the specimens seen remains 

 adherent to the pileus, so that in the elongation of the recep- 

 tacle the volva ruptures in a circumscissle manner, leaving the 

 edge of the pileus more or less irregularly lobed and pendent 

 around the upper part of the receptacle, though sometimes the 

 volva ruptures so high up that there is no free portion pro- 

 jecting. As the plant ages, the latticed portion of the gleba 

 loosens from the stipe, except at the junction with the uppe^ 

 part of the pileus, and expands in such a manner as to form a 

 pendent, loose, open, large meshed irregular network, which 

 becomes easily torn asunder in several places. The plant when 

 fresh has a peculiar, but pleasant and strong '* amyl-acetate 

 odor. It represents the type of a new genus 7, which may 

 characterized as follows : 



DICTYBOLE Atkinson, n. gen.^ Receptacle a hollow stalk 

 with a chambered wall bearing at the apex a weakly devel- 



7 Dr. Ed. Fischer^ to whom the plant was submitted, confirms my opinion that it 

 represents a new genus. 



be 



