2 



Mycologia 



together that they could not be separated, and it was difficult to 

 make out in sections where one ended and the other began. In 

 Petry's 1909 collection (Herb. Durand, no. 6932) the numerous 

 cups were densely cespitose and more or less coherent. 



On October 27, 1909, Professor G. F. Atkinson collected beau- 

 tiful specimens of the compound form, on burnt soil about the 

 bases of dead elm trees, on the same Cayuga Flats. The masses 

 were much larger, more intricate, and in every way more highly 

 developed and complex than the one gathered by Petry. A very 

 noticeable feature was the extreme brittleness of the flesh, the 

 masses falling to pieces almost at a touch. These specimens 

 were examined by the writer and found to agree excellently with 

 Boudier's description and figures of Galactinia proteana var. 

 sparassoides Boud.^ Professor Atkinson has recently very kindly 

 placed in my hands notes and photographs made by him from the 

 fresh plants, with the suggestion that they be published. His 

 notes are as follows : 



" Plants sessile without any stem above or in the ground. One 

 plant 25 cm. broad, rather old and somewhat collapsed, probably 

 about 15 cm. high. Fresh plants smaller, more or less oval or 

 elliptical in general outline, 10-12 cm. high by 7-9 cm. broad. 

 At first lilac in color and the younger parts lilac, older parts be- 

 coming whitish to creamy white, very fleshy, entirely made up of 

 convoluted branches and anastomosing, lamellar structure. The 

 large cells or caverns .5-2 cm. in diameter, irregular, extending 

 from the base through all parts of the plants, thus sometimes 

 having a more or less radiate structure. Hymenium on both sur- 

 faces of the walls. The soil at the base is sometimes quite rich 

 in mycehum. As this comes to the surface the fruit body begins 

 to develop, forming an irregular, expanded, and folded structure 

 which is whitish or lilac in color, bearing the hymenium. The 

 extension of these folds and caverns produces the large fruit 

 body. Asci cylindrical, 200-226 X 10-12 fi. Spores uniseriate in 

 the upper third of the ascus, elliptical, roughened, hyaline, bigut- 

 tulate, 10-12 X 5-6 itt." 



It should be added that the asci become intensely blue with 

 iodine, and the excipulum consists of two layers of large, vesicu- 

 lose cells, 30-60^11 in diameter, separated by a median layer of 

 stout hyphae. 



3 Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 15: 51. pi. 3. f. 2. 1899. 



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