110 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 



dent disk. Spores less opaque and more finely granulated than in the last, 

 4 jj.. — PL 1, f. 4. — Open woods. Wisconsin specimens collected by Bundy, 

 also occur in tlie herbarium of Professor Peck. 



Figures:— MoYgaxi, I. c. 967, f. 6. Exsiccatae:—'ElYis, N. A. Fungi, no. 

 1309. 



Geaster bryantii, B., reported by Bundy in Rep. Geol. Surv. i, 399, presumably on speci- 

 mens of G. Uinbatus, is similar, but with an elongated mouth plicate as in G. BabenhorsUi, 

 and with a delicate cup at base of the stipe which, in typical specimens, is also surrounded 

 by a hanging collar-like fold below the apophysis. 



Geaster striatus (DC), also recorded by Bundy, perhaps a specimen of G. saccatus, re- 

 sembles that species in its general features, but the inner peridium is more or less stalked 

 and the mouth plicate, while the outer peridium is not saccate at base. 



Geaster triplex Jungh., which is represented in the Lapham herbarium by a specimen 

 without date or locality, is recognized by a lacerated cup-like intermediate layer, which 

 surrounds the base of the' inner peridium. It should be observed that a similar but incon- 

 stant and much smaller middle peridium is occasionally seen in the viftatus form of G. sac- 

 catus as it occurs about St. Louis, and is figured in G. hygrometricus by Corda (Icones 

 Fungorum, vi, pi. 4, f. 43, nos. 16-17). 



Synopsis op Bovista. 



L©ss than 1 in. in diameter; spores obovoid, long-pedicelled^5. plumbea. 

 Over i in. in diameter; spores globose, short-pediceUed — B.pila. 



1. Bovista plumbea P. — Usually half an inch to an inch in diameter, 

 irregularly globose or depressed when old. Peridium at first double, the 

 outer layer dull white, flaking away, the inner white to lead-color or some- 

 times dark purplish gray or even nearly black when old, smooth and 

 shghtly glossy, dehiscent at the apex by a round or oblong fissure mostly 

 with revolute margins. Capillitium deep chestnut brown, much branched, 

 the twigs blunt. Spores brown, nearly smooth,^ short obovoid, 5 — 6x6 — 7//, 

 with colorless pedicels 2x17 /<. — PI. 1, f. 5. — Very common in open hilly 

 pastures; also sent from River Falls {King), and doubtless occurring every- 

 where. 



B. plumbea and B. nigrescens are species readily confused if they are 

 really distinct. I have as yet failed to convince myself that our larger, 

 darker plants are more than a form of B. plumhea. Fries (systema, iii. 24) 

 records both as American; but I have seen no specimens corresponding 

 closely to B. nigrescens as figured in Berkley's Outlines of Brit. Fungology, 

 pi. 20, f . 5. Sturms Flora Heft 18, pi. 15; Bolton's Funguses about Halifax, pi. 

 118; and Sowerby pi. 331. Our common form is well represented by Micheli, 

 pi. 97, f. 6; Corda, Icones, v, pi. 6, f. 47, nos. 3-4 (the former inverted); 

 Vittadini, Funghi Mangerecci, pi. 33, f. 1; Berkeley, I. c. pi. 20, f. 6; and 

 Sturm's Flora. Heft 18, pi. 16 (copied by Winter). It is hard to see on what 

 grounds Fries and Winter refer Batsch. pi. 29, f. 166 to B. nigrescens. 



iThe descriptions in this paper apply to spores that have not been much soaked in water, 

 since the markings of many more or less completed disappear when the spores are wet, as 

 the case of some Ustilaginese and Uredineae. 



