AN UNDESCRIBED GENEA FROM MICHIGAN' 



E. A. Bessey and Bertha E. Thompson 

 (With Plate 20) 



The known Tuberaceae from Michigan are few in number. 

 In 1908 Dr. C. H. Kauffman) 2 reported Tuber lyoni from near 

 Ann Arbor and in 191 1 3 he reported from Allegan County a 

 species identified by him as T. borchii, and recently described by 

 Miss Gilkey 4 as a new species T. canaliculatum. Aside from 

 these there appears to be no published report of the occurrence of 

 fungi of this family in Michigan. In California, on the contrary, 

 twelve genera are recorded and many species, mainly through the 

 work first of H. W. Harkness, 5 and more recently of Miss Gilkey. 6 

 Whether this great superiority in the number of known specie^ 

 is a true index to the relative frequency of occurrence of these 

 forms in California and elsewhere in the country can be deter- 

 mined only when other botanists make as thorough a search for 

 them as did Harkness, Miss Gilkey, and their collaborators. In 

 California these workers made deliberate search for these 

 forms ; elsewhere their discovery has been mainly a matter of 

 chance. 



In August, 1919, the senior author found a dozen or more 

 specimens of a hypogaeous fungus at a point in Gogebic County, 



1 Contribution 65 from the Department of Botany, Michigan Agricultural 



College. 



2 Kauffman, C. H. Unreported Michigan fungi for 1907 with an outline 

 of the Gasteromycetes of the state. Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept., 10 : 63-84. 

 1908. 



3 Kauffman, C. H. Unreported Michigan fungi for 19 10, with outline keys 

 of the common genera of Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes. 



Ibid., 13: 215-249. 191 1. 



4 Gilkey, H. M. Two new truffles. Mycologia, 12: 99-101. Fig. 1. 1920. 



5 Harkness, H. W. California hypogaeous fungi. Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 

 3d Ser., 1 : 241-293. 1899. 



6 Gilkey, H. M. A revision of the Tuberales of California. Univ. of 

 Calif. Publications Botany, 6: 275-356. pis. 26-30. 1916. 



282 



