New Species of Gasteromycetes 273 



tinge, obovate to subglobose, 3-5 fx long by 3-4 /x broad, faintly 

 verruculose; capillitium present but rather scanty, hyaline, dis- 

 tantly septate and sparingly branched, 3-6^ in diameter, some- 

 what granular, often breaking up into rather short segments, 

 walls very thin. 



In black soil of prairies under wire fences. Type collected by 

 W. H. Long at Denton, Texas, December 27, 1908 (No. 2106). 

 Two other collections were made by the writer under wire fences 

 in black soil in the same locality as follows : September, 1907 

 (No. 2008a), and December 23, 1907 (No. 2052). Some twenty 

 specimens of this interesting little species were found during 1907 

 and 1908. The plants resemble externally, phalloid eggs which 

 have failed to develop, but their internal structure is quite dif- 

 ferent from that of a phalloid. All of the fences on the prairies 

 where this plant grows are made of barbed wire. In plowing 

 the land the soil is thrown toward the fence, thus burying a large 

 amount of vegetable debris ; it is in such localities that this plant 

 seems to thrive best. 



This plant resembles in its manner of growth an Arachnion, 

 but differs from this genus in having a true capillitium, a carti- 

 laginous endoperidium, and no peridioles. Its peculiar habitat, 

 its small size, and general resemblance to Arachnion album prob- 

 ably explain why it has not been found before. 



Lysurus texensis Ellis ( ?) 



" Eggs " in groups of several individuals, white, about 1 inch 

 in diameter ; stipe hollow, tapering toward base, reddish above, 

 much paler below, 3-5 inches tall by 0.5 inch thick ; walls of 

 stipe of two layers of chambers thick, chambers 2-3 times as 

 long as broad, opening outwardly occasionally but not inwardly, 

 polygonal in cross section, pseudoparenchymatous, stipe crowned 

 by a finger-like pileus ; arms or fingers 4-5, at first joined by a 

 thin membrane at apex, later separating, 0.3-0.5 inch long, taper- 

 ing toward apex, hollow, pseudoparenchymatous, orange-red, 

 transversely rugose, with a shallow furrow or suture along back 

 of each, entirely covered by the gleba on sides and outer surface, 

 inner faces or sides not gleba-bearing, expanding at base where 

 joined to stipe into a thin, flat, lobed border, lobes as many as 

 the arms and lying between their bases ; gleba covering and com- 

 pletely hiding the outer surface of arms and border, having 



