Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



NORTH AMERICAN FUNGI. 

 By A. P. Morgan. 

 Second Paper. 

 {Continued from Voi. XI., p. 149.) 

 (Read March 5, 1889.) 

 THE GASTROMYCETES.* 

 Order II. — LycoperdacetE. 

 Mycelium filamentous or fibrous, rooting from the base or 

 sometimes proceeding from all points of the surface. Peridium 

 composed of two distinct layers, subglobose, sessile but com- 

 monly with a more or less thickened base, sometimes definitely 

 stipitate. Gleba at first white, cellulose, the hymenium lining 

 the walls of the cells; at length when the spores begin to 

 ripen, dissolved with copious effusion of water; finally after 

 maturity drying up into a dusty mass of mingled threads and 

 spores. 



Fungi mostly terrestrial, a very few species lignatile, epigoeus some- 

 times hypogoeus. In all the species of this order there is a double 

 peridium, and correspondingly there is present in all of them those 

 peculiar threads mingled with the spores, which in the aggregate are 

 called the capillitium. The outer peridium may be a firm, persistent 

 coat, at first inclosing the inner peridium, then opening in different 

 ways ; or more commonly it is a soft, fragile layer, often with external 

 projections in the shape of warts, spines, or scales; in this case it 

 is usually termed the cortex. The threads of the capillitium are uni- 



* After the first paper went to press I received a pamphlet entitled " Morels 

 and Puffballs of Madison, Wis., by William Trelease.'' This is the first attempt 

 to give a systematic account of the Gastromycetes of any region of the United 

 States. In it a few species hitherto unknown are added to the flora of the 

 country, and the distribution of several others is extended. The paper is spe- 

 cially valuable for its criti al observations on the species, and for the indepen- 

 dent measurement of the spores. 



A. P. M. 



