MYCOLOGk 



Vol. XI January, 1919 No. i 



PEZIZA PROTEANA VAR. SPARASSOIDES IN 



AMERICA 



ElIAS J. DURAND 



(With Plate i) 



Peziza proteana was described by Boudier/ in 1899, from ma- 

 terial collected in the foret de Carnelle, near Paris. In 191 7^ 

 Seaver- published a photograph and description of the species, 

 stating that it had appeared several times in the vicinity of New 

 York City, and citing Texas, also, as within its range of distri- 

 bution. Two collections of P. proteana were made at Ithaca, 

 N. Y., by E. J. Petry, in 1907 and 1909, both of which were 

 studied in the fresh condition by the writer. The plants were 

 growing in late autumn, on burnt soil around the bases of trees, 

 on the wooded, swampy flats at the head of Cayuga Lake. The 

 collection made in 1907 (Herb. Durand, no. 5251) consisted of 

 three separate ascomata, about 5 cm. in diameter, bowl-shaped 

 and somewhat inequilateral, and of one group made up of several 

 cups coalesced into a large, irregular Gyromitra-lik^ mass. The 

 specimens were all growing together, and microscopical examina- 

 tion disclosed no differences in either excipular structure or 

 hymenial characters. The compound mass gave every appear- 

 ance of being an extreme development of the condition seen so 

 often among the fleshy Pezizas when growing closely crowded 

 together. In P. badia and P. vesiculosa, for example, the writer 

 has seen large numbers of crowded ascomata not only cohering 

 closely, but the tissues of adjoining cups so completely grown 



1 Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 15: 50. pi. 3. f. i. 1S99. 



2 Mycologia, 9: 1-3. pi. i. 1917. 



[Mycologia for November (10: 277-307) was issued November 23, 1918.] 



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