MYCOLOGIA 
Vol. VI May, 1914 No. 3 
OBSERVATIONS ON SPHAEROSOMA AND 
ALLIED GENERA 
Fred. J. Seaver 
(With Plate 123, Containing 10 Figures) 
In response to a paper recently published on the genus Lam- 
prospora / the writer has received from Doctor Roland Thaxter a 
very interesting plant which it was suggested might belong to that 
genus, or, possibly, to the genus Boudiera. Examination of the 
spores and paraphyses of this plant, which was collected at Kit- 
tery Point, Maine, led the writer to suspect that it was very 
closely related to Sphaerosoma echinulatum of the writer. 2 In 
fact the spores and paraphyses scarcely differed from those of my 
own plant. A later examination of the entire plant showed con- 
siderable difference in the gross characters of the two, the Maine 
plant resembling in general appearance a Lcnnprospora rather 
than a Sphaerosoma. In spite of this fact, however, there was 
sufficient similarity between the two to suggest that they were, at 
least, very closely related. 
The study of this plant has suggested a review of the facts 
regarding the identity of the genus Sphaerosoma and its relation 
to other genera of the discomycetes. Several papers have recently 
appeared on this subject, but there are still a number of points 
which are not entirely clear. Many of these questions will never 
be cleared up until the species of Sphaerosoma are collected in 
sufficient quantity to make a careful morphological study of the 
1 Mycologia 6: 5-24. pi. 114. 1914. 
2 Jour. Myc. 11 : 2-6. pi. 75. 1905. 
[Mycologia for March, 1914 (6: 49-102), was issued March 18, 1914]. 
103 
