Parks: Notes on California Fungi 



15 



of an external similarity. Another season should develop some 

 definite knowledge of these peculiar forms. 



A few days after my discovery of the Secotkim at Alma, I 

 went again to the Guadaloupe district, and secured after a great 

 deal of hard work some specimens of a Melanogaster which so 

 far seems well known and is quite common but as yet is unnamed. 

 I have since collected it frequently and find it very interesting. 

 It is a small, dark-brown or black growth, sometimes covered 

 with a dense, brown, powdery substance that of itself would be 

 a distinctive characteristic. I have found it averaging the bulk 

 of a good-sized marble, and rarely up to the size of an egg and 

 nearly round. It is most frequently found just under the leaves, 

 but I have also discovered it over six inches deep in hard ground, 

 and much wrinkled. 



And there is still another strange thing about this fungus. 

 Under coast live-oaks are favorite places for it, especially if the 

 leafy deposit is heavy. Turning these leaves over, the little brown 

 balls are exposed and are seen to be covered with great drops of 

 moisture ; and I have found them so day after day during many 

 weeks, and in places where no rain had fallen for many months. 

 As they mature, they become soft and in a way deliquesce. 

 Really, the upper half falls away, exposing the interior, which 

 has melted to a tarry consistency and then run away, carrying the 

 ripe spores into the ground. When first exposed these little 

 plants are often covered with a fine yellow mycelium, but no spe- 

 cial point of attachment is seen and older plants do not show it. 



It is common, but also very distinctive, — withal a plant not to 

 be tolerated as a familiar companion unless thoroughly dried in 

 the open air or securely pickled. 



It seems that the Hymenogastrales are more or less to be asso- 

 ciated with powerful aromatic properties, some of which are 

 pleasant, but others powerfully offensive. And this particular 

 Melanogaster is the most offensively pungent of them all. While 

 maturing, if left in a room, it will be so strong in an hour's time 

 as to be sickening. I do not wonder that botanists familiar with 

 it find it difficult to select an appropriate name. Certainly, seeing 

 it as I have, none of the offensive names fit ; it would take them 

 all and that would not be enough. 



