242 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
’ In the summer of 1888, a portion of which was spent by the writer 
in collecting fungi among the mountains of Tennessee and North 
Carolina, a species of Wynnea was found near Burbank, Tennessee, 
growing on the ground.in rich woods, in a single locality; where 
several clusters of its long bluntly pointed, rabbit-ear-shaped dark 
brown apothecia were scattered in a limited space, each cluster borne 
on a well-defined stout stem emerging directly from the humus. The 
resemblance of this plant to CooKe’s figure of Wynnea macrotis, to 
which it closely corresponds in form and color, was so striking that it 
was assumed to be that species, despite certain differences in the size 
and appearance of the spores when fully mature, and in the absence 
of any authentic material of the Indian species for comparison it was 
so referred. 
A second visit was made to the same region in 1896, and the Wynnea 
was again encountered, both at Burbank and at Cranberry, North 
Carolina; one of the specimens from the last-named locality being 
parasitized by a fine species of Syncephalis described in a former 
number of the GAzETTE (24:1. 1897) as S. Wynneae, the host being 
here recorded as W. macrotis. Having noticed, while gathering this 
material, that the stems appeared to have been broken from some 
attachment in every case, and not to have arisen like most humus 
Pezizae from an indefinite mycelium, a more careful examination 
was made in subsequent gatherings, and a little digging about the base 
of the stem showed that it originated in every case from a large, 
irregularly lobed, brown, firm, tuber-like body buried a few inches 
deep in the humus. This body, which was somewhat cartilaginous 
in consistency, showed, when cut, a chambered structure (figs. 5 and 
6), the interior-being traversed by light and dark more or less con 
trasting winding areas, closely resembling those characteristic of 
many Tuberaceae or Hymenogastreae; and at first sight it seemed not 
impossible that the Wynnea might actually be parasitic on some 
hypogaeous fungus. A microscopic examination of sections cut from 
this tuber, however, showed no signs of any structures which could 
by any possibility be considered to represent modified hymenia-_ Te 
chambered interior, as is shown by the accompanying figures, 1 vet 
rounded by an external layer or cortex of large, empty; thin-walled, 
brownish cells, those on the surface showing signs of degeneration 
