30 The Museum Gazette 



gall above described makes its appearance early in the next 

 year. 



The gall-insect, which causes the currant-like galls on the 

 male catkins of the oak, is (Spahegastev baccarum) are parti- 

 cularly abundant towards the end of the month. Its alternate 

 generation is (Neuroterus lenticulavis), which causes the flat 

 button-like galls on the under side of oak leaves in September. 



MlTRULA PHALLOIDES. 



A fungus of considerable interest on account of its excep- 

 tional mode of growth may now be found by searching 

 decaying leaves in damp places. It is the Mitvula phalloides. 

 It is club-shaped, about two inches long, and of yellow or 

 orange-yellow colour. The older mycologists, basing their 

 classification entirely upon superficial characters, very natur- 

 ally classed it under the genus Clavaria. It is, however, an 

 ascomycete, the Clavaria are basidiomycetes. In the former 

 the spores (reproductive bodies akin to the seeds of flowering 

 plants) are enclosed in little sacs or capsules (asci) ; in the 

 latter they are borne naked on the tips of little stalks (basidia). 

 There is another fungus, Spathularia clavata, which resembles 

 the above in some particulars, but is always larger, and the 

 head runs down the stem on opposite sides for some distance. 

 In Mitvula phalloides, the lower margin of the head is sharply 

 defined. There are two notches on opposite sides ; these are 

 never continued down the stem. 



Puffballs. — Mr. C. G. Lloyd, the well-known American collector 

 and student of the gasteromycetes, writes: "Would it not be a 

 splendid idea another season to make a collection of your local 

 'puffballs' for exhibition in the Educational Museum? They can 

 be kept in trays as shells, Ltnd I would be glad to furnish you with 

 the names if you will send me specimens. There ought to be 

 a collection of 'puffballs ' on exhibit in every museum." 



We thank Mr. Lloyd for his very kind offer, of which we will 

 certainly avail ourselves as occasion requires. For many years 

 past we have been forming such a collection as Mr. Lloyd mentions, 

 and living specimens of local puffballs, earthballs, bird's nest fungi 

 and other gasteromycetes are regularly exhibited in the museum 

 during the autumn months. 



