Notes and Brief Articles 



193 



An underground gasteromycete, apparently a species of Hys- 

 terangium, was brought to me about the middle of February by 

 Mr. L. Robba, who collected it with a trained truffle dog under 

 an oak tree near White Plains, New York. The soil was not 

 frozen hard, because of the mild weather and a layer of two or 

 three inches of leaves, but the tiny " pufTballs " were frozen and 

 made very poor specimens when dried. The spores were rather 

 rough, ovoid, and distinctly umber-brown under a microscope. 

 Mr. Robba naturally thought they were truffles, but he did not 

 notice any odor and he recalled that his dog was not particularly 

 " interested " in the find, only scratching a little to mark the spot 

 and then walking away. The plants were unearthed by scraping 

 off the covering of leaves and digging about two inches into the 

 soil. There must have been some odor present, otherwise the dog 

 would not have been attracted. 



What we need here in the East is an army of enthusiasts like 

 Mr. Parks, who would take long journeys with rake and hoe and 

 explore for underground " pufTballs." A few trained truffle dogs 

 would also be invaluable. This is a matter for mycological and 

 botanical clubs to consider. The autumn is the best season for 

 such work. 



Mr. H. E. Parks, of San Jose, California, has been collecting 

 a great many underground fungi during the past few years, and 

 I have asked him to prepare a brief account of his recent work 

 for Mycologia. During the season of 1917-1918, he reported a 

 number of specimens from the Santa Cruz Mountains generically 

 determined, as well as the following species : Gautieria morchelli- 

 formis, buried two inches in an old road-bed ; Genoa Harknessii, 

 on the surface of clay soil under pines ; Genoa Gardnerii, under 

 deep leaf-humus ; Pseudobaldamia magnata, buried deep in wet 

 soil in jungle; Tuber candidum, in loose soil under oak; Elasino- 

 myces russuloidcs, under deep leaf-humus ; and Geopora Hark- 

 nessii, on the surface of clay soil under pines. 



In January of the present year, he collected under a single iso- 

 lated oak (Q. agrifolia), in an area about ten feet square, 7 

 genera and 11 species of hypogaeous fungi. The genera were: 



