74 



GE ASTER RUFESCENS PERS. IN YORKSHIRE 



F. A. MASON, F.R.M.S. 



During the visit of members of the Yorkshire NaturaHsts' 

 Union to the Valley of Desolation, Bolton Woods, in connexion 

 with the work on Rivers Investigation, on December nth, 

 1920, Mr. R. W. Butcher, of Leeds, collected a specimen of the 

 above named gasteromycete. According to Massee and 

 Crossland's ' Fungus Flora of Yorkshire,' 1905, G. rufescens 

 has only once been recorded for this County (Boynton, N.E. 

 Div.), but the record is left unnumbered, is inserted in square 

 brackets, and is qualified by the remark ' a doubtful species.' 

 I communicated with Mr. A. Clarke, who confirmed the iden- 

 tification, and kindly gave me the opportunity of looking 

 through some unpublished notes of the late Charles Crossland 

 referring to this species, from which it is evident that a second 

 specimen has been found in the S.W. Division. Remarks on 

 the latter are accompanied by a note which throws light on 

 the Boynton record and disperses the uncertainty cast upon 

 the occurrence of this species in Yorkshire. 



In the year 1907 Crossland received a geaster collected by 

 H. Lawson on bare soil, under sycamore trees, in the grounds 

 of Mr. Whitley Thompson, Skircourt, Halifax, October 22nd, 

 the identity of which, he was in doubt. Crossland says : 



' This was submitted to C. G. Lloyd, of Cincinatti, U.S. A 



who says the species is G. rufescens Pers., so that this will 

 confirm the Boynton record for Yorkshire.' 



In a further note with regard to the Halifax specimen, ha 

 says ; ' I considered this to be G. fintbriatus and entered it as 

 such in the Halifax records for 1907. This, however, must 

 be altered, as on submitting the specimen to C. G. Lloyd, he 

 declared it to be G. rufescens. There was only one found. 

 There is only one previous record for Yorkshire (Boynton — 

 W. W. Strickland, The Naturalist, July, 1889), and this, at 

 the time the Yorkshire Fungus Flora was compiled, was 

 considered doubtful and left unnumbered ; glad to confirm 

 this solitary Yorkshire Record.' 



Judging from descriptions and from published drawings 

 G. rufescens is a variable species. The Bolton specimen agrees 

 well with the figure in Grevillea II., 1873, PI. XIX., and in its 

 more shrivelled condition the appearance of the cxoperidium 

 corresponds perfectly with C. G. Lloyd's photograph in ' The 

 Geastrae.' In that photograph, the endoperidium is pedicel- 

 latcly attached to the exoperidium, while in the Bolton speci- 

 men the endoperidium is sessile, and it is recognised that both 

 forms occur. C. Rea, in Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc, Vol. III., 1911- 

 1912, p. 352, writing of this species, says ' it has the inner layer 



Naturalist 



