20 



Mycologia 



seen, this plant is not easily forgotten. I encountered it quite 

 unexpectedly this season and have been able to study it rather 

 intimately. As the genus seems to be little known, I shall go 

 into some details of its growth and appearance. 



It is truly hypogaeous and a gross feeder upon the forest 

 debris, and may be found in all kinds of forests. It prefers no 

 one species of tree, and I have found it equally plentiful under 

 redwoods and live oaks. As one gets into this work, it becomes 

 possible to identify some of the genera by the appearance of the 

 mycelium encountered before the spore-body has been seen. 

 Hysterangium is the easiest to identify and is unmistakable. 



This mycelium is white, coarse, and in dense mats often several 

 inches thick and extending over many square feet. In fact, the 

 extent of these mycelial beds is enormous. I have been able to 

 gather sheets of it that looked like lace. The sporophores average 

 at maturity 2.5-3 diameter, and are nearly round, with a 



thick, white peridium that turns brown when handled or exposed 

 to the air. This peridium breaks easily and separates from the 

 context. The interior is a tough, green, gristly substance in the 

 center of which there appears to be a well-lined cavity. 



I came upon a bed of mycelium in a redwood forest in January 

 last, and followed it to its limits and roughly measured its extent 

 at 500 square feet — I believe this was conservative. In fact, on 

 almost any place within a quarter of a mile on that hillside, this 

 species could be found. The young plants are in a network of 

 this mycelium, but, as it reaches maturity, the threads disappear, 

 leaving the plant near the surface, where it slowly decomposes. 

 I never failed to find this species in quantities, and soon gave up 

 collecting it. 



Late in March I was close to this locality, but working along 

 the edge of a grove of live oaks for tubers, when I encountered 

 a bed of this mycelium, and directly I came upon several huge 

 specimens — some as large as eggs. I had found an end of the 

 bed and started to trace its extent. It was less than two feet in 

 width, in gravelly soil, and about every four feet I came upon a 

 cluster of closely crowded, distorted, huge plants. Shortly it 

 entered dense brush, and the spore-bodies no longer appeared. I 

 was able to trace this narrow bed for over two hundred feet, and 



