Seaver: Observations on Sphaerosoma 
107 
in North Wales and was said to grow on moist ground on the 
margin of a lake. The habitat of the Maine plant was given by 
the collector as follows : “ It was growing on bare clay mud, where 
cattle had stamped around a small pond which dries up in mid- 
summer.” Dr. Thaxter states that although the original locality 
has been visited many times since the original collection was made, 
no more of the plants could be found. My own plants were col- 
lected in a pasture at the foot of two small ravines in a depression 
which is wet a good part of the year. Here cattle had tramped 
about until the ground was very uneven with standing water in 
the low places. The plants grew on the bare clayey soil about the 
margin and on the elevated portions which were very wet. The 
type locality has been visited only once since the original collec- 
tion was made in 1904. The latter visit was during the summer 
of 1912. A special search was made for the plant at this time. 
The season did not appear to be favorable, but a few immature 
plants were found, so that I have reason to believe that the species 
occurs in that locality regularly when the conditions are favorable. 
'At the time of the original collection, two other discomycetes were 
found growing in company with it, Ascobolus viridis and Lampro- 
spora Crec’hqueraultii. Both of these plants were found to be 
present at the time of the last visit. 
The genus Boudiera was founded by Cooke on Boudiera areo- 
lata. The genus was placed in the Ascobolaceae apparently on 
account of the protruding asci, a character which was thought to 
be restricted to the Ascobolaceae, and in fact one of the charac- 
ters on which the family is segregated. This character is common 
to a number of the Pezizaceae, including members of the genus 
Lamprospora, as has been previously noted. The fact that Bou- 
diera is often described as having violet spores and is made to 
include plants of a coprophilous habitat is likely to be misleading, 
since the type species shows neither of these characters. 
If the genus Boudiera as represented by the type species is to 
be retained as a separate genus, it must be regarded as a close 
relative of Lamprospora on the one hand and as showing at least 
a superficial resemblance to Sphaerosoma on the other. Whether 
this superficial resemblance is an indication of close natural rela- 
tionship remains to be seen. This resemblance was noted by 
