1897] NOTES ON THE GENUS CALOSTOMA 187 
tobasidiomycetes of Brefeld’s “‘ system” to the typical Gastro- 
mycetes. 
From a systematic point of view the American species of 
Calostoma are not without a certain interest, especially in con- 
nection with the uncertainty which has prevailed concerning the 
distinctions existing between C. cinnabarinum and C. lutescens. 
The earliest reference to either of these species is, so far as can 
be ascertained, that which is made by Plukenet in his Phyto- 
Sraphia (1691), where, as pointed out by Farlow (1887), a 
fungus, probably referable to C. cixnabarinum, is figured and 
briefly described as follows: ‘Fungus pulverulentus virginianus 
caudice corallino topiario opere contorto.”” More than a cen- 
tury later Persoon (1809) described and figured one of the 
American forms under the name of Scleroderma callostoma, remark- 
ing that if many species with a similarly shaped mouth were found 
anew genus should be formed, and later in the same year Des- 
vaux ( 1809) established this new genus, giving it the name of 
Calostoma, and describing the only American species then 
known as C. cinnabarinum. In 1811 Bosc again described it as 
Lycoperdon heterogeneum, probably not having seen either Per- 
soon’s or Desvaux’s description, as he makes no reference to 
them. Like Persoon, Bosc states that it should form a new 
genus, and in 1817 Nees von Esenbeck, who was also evidently 
ignorant of the description of the two last named authors, for 
a second time places it in a new genus, calling it Mitremyces 
heterogeneus. In 1825 Edward Hitchcock in an article on C, 
_Cinnabarinum in Am. Jour. Sct. calls it Gyropodium cocctneum, a 
name which he ascribes to Schweinitz, but evidently upon no 
published authority. Later Corda in 1842 retains both the 
generic names of Calostoma and Mitremyces, referring C. cinna- 
barinum to the former and C. dutescens to the latter; while lastly 
in 1888 all the species of the genus were returned by Massee to 
we Lengel name ot Calostoma. 
ns t i which are ¢ widely distributed ; 
securing i in 1 America, Australia, southern Asia, and the Malay 
