B^ssey & Thompson : An Undescribed Genea 283 



Michigan, not far from the Wisconsin line. They were found at 

 a depth of three to eight centimeters in the black soil forming 

 the upper ten centimeters or so, of the soil of a forest consisting 

 of sugar maple, hemlock, yellow birch and balsam fir. The soil 

 below this depth consisted of gray sand, moist but not wet. The 

 black upper soil consisted of sand with a large admixture of leaf 

 mold, with numerous needles of balsam fir throughout it, as well 

 as. roots and underground stems of various plants such as Lyco- 

 p odium lucidulum, Coptis trifolia, Oralis acetosella, Dryoptcris 

 sp., and Viola sp. 



The fruiting bodies were found scattered at distances of two 

 to ten centimeters throughout an area of about one square meter, 

 the . soil in this region being scantily filled with a loose gray 

 mycelium which did not show on the surface of the soil and was 

 not noticeably more abundant near the fruiting bodies. 



The single, somewhat lobed cavity and distinct central opening 

 and the slender paraphyses extending beyond the cylindrical 

 eight-spored asci determine the fungus as belonging to the genus 

 Genea. From Hydnocystis it differs in the somewhat lobed cav- 

 ity and secondary cortex formed by the paraphyses projecting 

 beyond the asci. 



From the described species of Genea this fungus differs in its 

 spore characters. Ordinarily the spores are spherical or slightly 

 ellipsoidal and marked by papillae or warts ; in these Michigan 

 specimens the spore have no signs of warts or papillae but are 

 smooth, except that the epispore may show some irregular folds. 

 The spores, moreover, are not spherical or ellipsoidal, but in side 

 view appear square or rectangular, except the apical spores which 

 may be irregularly rounded. Through mutual pressure of the 

 asci and paraphyses the former and their enclosed ascospores 

 are more or less polygonal in cross section and in some cases 

 almost square. In the latter case the central ascospores are 

 actually cubical as they always appear to be when viewed from 

 the side. 



The hyaline spores when mature possess a spherical or slightly 

 ellipsoidal hyaline endospore surrounded by a hyaline exospore 

 that is often only very slightly developed laterally, but very much 



