NOTES ON IOWA SAPROPHYTES— I 



GEASTER MINIMUS SCHW. AND ITS RELATIVES 



T. H. Macbride 

 (With Plate 62, Containing 3 Figures) 



Geaster minimus Schw. is a beautiful little species found at 

 times in considerable numbers growing amid the grass in places 

 where this by reason of lighter soil is not too dense. It has been 

 reported from various parts of the world but so far, in North 

 America, from the eastern, forested region of the continent only. 

 The type would appear to have been taken in South Carolina, 

 perhaps about 1821, where it was found later also by Ravenel. 

 It occurs, as reported, in South America, in Ceylon, Australia, 

 Borneo, but, curiously, not in Europe. 



However, in 1842, Vittadini described from northern Italy a 

 little geaster, G. marginatus, which according to Saccardo is re- 

 lated to the Schweinitzian type and " appears to differ in the form 

 of endoperidium only and in the ' rima' around the peristome." 

 This rima " is, properly speaking, a fissure, slit, or other elon- 

 gated opening. Morgan ( Jour. Cin. Soc, 1899) translates rima 

 " chink " and says it appears sometimes in specimens recognized 

 by him as G. minimus Schw. A chink in the sense of an opening 

 or a fissure would seem here a morphological impossibility. Such 

 a chink would cut out the peristomic areole. 



Schweinitz describes Geaster minimus (Syn. Fung. Carol., No. 

 327): Peridium ovate, at the base plane, white, subpedicellate : 

 the mouth piano-conic, ciliate; the volva (the outer peridium) 

 multifid, fuscescent, white below. Everywhere, on the bare 

 ground in grassy places. Peridium of the size of a large pea, 

 pedicellate. The mouth piano-conic from adhering cilia which 

 are at length revolute and free at the apex. The several lobes 

 (of the outer peridium) elegantly revolute, from the entire arched 

 base ; where they touch the ground, fuscescent, white below, occu- 



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