Parks : California Hypogaeous Fungi 



305 



Late in the season the best places are to be found deep in the 

 forest, where the ground retains more moisture. When the col- 

 lector finds a favorable place for operations the rake comes into 

 use and a small area is raked free of leaves and humus. Watch 

 must be kept in the leaves for certain species of Hymenogaster 

 and of Melanogaster are to be expected and occur frequently. 

 These are dark-colored species and are easily missed. Other 

 species will appear entirely exposed on the surface of the earth 

 and some will be just beneath the surface and out of sight. Ex- 

 cavation may be continued to a depth of a foot, at which depth 

 most species will cease to be found. Care should be taken at all 

 stages, especially near the surface, to avoid injury to specimens, 

 but they will often be injured in spite of it, and many of the dark- 

 colored species will require very careful search and sifting of the 

 soil. The rewards are more often blistered hands and an aching 

 back than truffles, but there are also some intensely exciting 

 moments. 



Any account of the underground fungi of the state of California 

 must of necessity be very incomplete, as a large number of the 

 species have not as yet been determined. The large collections 

 already listed are being continually added to with additional species 

 and variations of the older ones. The variations alone are adding 

 many difficulties to the work of final determination. One benefit 

 has accrued in the many collections, and that is the large number 

 of immature specimens which will provide valuable material for 

 life history studies. Wliere there has heretofore been a very defi- 

 nite, lack of such material, it has seemed at times more readily 

 secured than the mature forms. 



Genea compacta Hk. originally collected in Marin County, Cali- 

 fornia. Rare. Ascocarps minute, 5-7 mm., reddish brown, glo- 

 bose with oval opening at apex protected by mass of long inter- 

 mingled dark-colored hairs which arise in clusters and spread fan- 

 like from a series of pyramidal projections arranged at regular 

 intervals around the edge of the apical openings. Minutely and 

 sharply verrucose. Mycelial attachment inconspicuous. Found 

 singly and in large numbers in the vicinity of Alma, spring of 

 1919. In clay at a depth of over six inches and in light soil among 



