NORTH AMERICAN ANTHURUS. 



r,03 



Historical and Systematic Account. 



There is but little literature upon Anthurus, and what there is has been confined 

 almost wholly to brief systematic descriptions of the mature forms of the few species. The 

 earliest form described was Lysurus archeri Berk., collected in J. D. Hooker's Antarctic 

 voyage of discovery, 1839-1843. This form was afterward figured by Berkeley in 

 Flora Tasmaniae, Vol. II., 1860, Tab. 184. Prom the illustration of an "egg" given there, 

 Fischer was able to decide in 1889 that in Anthurus the arms inclose and arch over the 

 gleba in the young stage. 1 This seems to be all that has been heretofore directly known 

 in regard to young stages of Anthurus. 



According to the view of the genus Lysurus presented by Fischer in Saccardo's 

 Sylloge fungorum, 2 A. borealis would be considered a Lysurus, for its arms bend 

 inward — not outward. 



Patouillard 3 has, however, recently objected to such a view of Lysurus and shows 

 from late studies upon a supply of L. mokusin collected in China by Delavay, that the 

 marked characters of that species are the smooth inner faces of the arms and the 

 presence of the gleba upon the outer (externe) faces of the arms. An Anthurus, he 

 states, has its spore mass against the inner faces of the arms. This objection has caused 

 Fischer to modify the characters of the two genera in a late addition to his monograph 

 upon the Phalloideae, 4 so that now he distinguishes Lysurus from Anthurus by the former 

 having the inner faces of its arms smooth and not covered by the gleba, while they are so 

 covered in Anthurus. 



Upon such a view of the genera our North American fungus must be regarded as an 

 Anthurus, for the greater portion of the inner face of each arm is cross wrinkled and is 

 in contact with the gleba. It approaches Lysurus in having the lower portion of the 

 inner face of each arm smooth and not covered by the gleba. The erect position of its 

 arms also is like that of L. mokusin. 



This species thus comes to have an important systematic interest from its closely 

 connecting Lysurus with Anthurus and so with the Clathreae, where Fischer places it. 



The fungus is quite distinct from all forms heretofore described and may be regarded 

 as a new species with the following diagnosis : — 



1 Ed. Fischer : Uutersuch. z. entwick. der phalloideen. J Patouillard : Organisation du Lysurus mokusin Fr . 



p 11 Journal de botanique, 16 Juillet, 1890, p. 252. 



4 Fischer : Neue untersuch. z. vergleich. entwicklungs- 

 2 Saccardo : Sylloge fungorum, Vol. 7. p. 22. geschichte u. systematik cler phalloideen, p. 6 and 27. 



