NEW OR CRITICAL BRITISH FUNGI. 
43 
increases in size to accommodate the rapid increase in size of the 
gleba, etc. The basal inner layer grows rapidly, its upper surface 
remaining compact and developing into a broad, slightly convex 
columella, arching into the cavity of the gleba ; the under surface 
becomes very spongy and cavernous, and is the commencement of 
the future stem, yet enclosed by the continuous outer layer of the 
peridium. During this period the gleba, which when quite 
young exactly resembles the gleba in a young Lycoperdon, 
becomes mature; when the spores are fully formed the hymenial 
elements deliquesce, producing the well-known moist stage in the 
gleba of a young Boletus or Lycoperdon when water can be 
squeezed out of the gleba ; after becoming dry the spores become 
coloured, and finally form a powdery mass mixed with numerous 
capillitium threads. Up to this stage the whole structure is buried 
in the ground, the size varying from 1^-2^ in. across, but when 
the spores are ripe the pent-up stem bursts through the outer basal 
wall of the peridium, and rapidly elongates into a stem 3-5 in. 
high, thus elevating the peridium into the air, where its mass of 
ripe spores may be dispersed by the wind. The above sequence of 
development is practically the same in the genus Tulostoma , and I 
am not convinced that the two genera are not too closely allied. 
In some species of Tulostoma there is a definite stoma or mouth to 
the peridium, but again in others the dehiscence is by an irregular 
breaking up of the peridium, as in Queletia. In some species of 
Tulostoma the outer layer of the peridium is carried away by the 
elongating stem when it bursts through, and remains as an 
irregular volva at the base of the stem. 
Fries compares Queletia with the genus Claviceps , Welw. and 
Currey, but I have shown elsewhere that the one species included 
in the last-named genus is a true species of Battarrea. 
Queletia mirabilis, Fries. 
Peridium subglobose, 1J-2 in. across, whitish, wall brittle and 
breaking irregularly at maturity ; stem 2-4 in. long, up to 1 in. 
thick at the base, lacunose, surface broken up into large more or 
less squarrose shreds of tissue with the free ends pointing upwards, 
girt at the apex by a loose, irregularly torn, free collar, formed by 
the outer ruptured wall of the peridium ; mass of capillitium and 
spores cinnamon, then tawny brown ; basidia tetrasporous, spores 
globose, with a very short pedicel, and densely covered with rather 
large warts, 7-9 p diameter ; threads of capillitium rarely branched, 
very long, contorted, almost colourless, septa very rare, 8-10 p 
diameter. 
Queletia mirabilis , Fries, l.c., p. 171, tab. iv. 
Gregarious. On the ground among heaps of rotten leaves. 
Herbarium Grounds, Kew. 
A very interesting addition to our fungus flora, but is it inde- 
genous ? A box full of specimens belonging to this species was 
received from Trexlertown, United States, earlier in the season, 
and the loose spores and broken fragments were deposited near to 
