THE STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF 
SECOTIUM AGARICOIDES 
Henry S. Conard 
(With Plate 157 and i Text Figure) 
This curious fungus was first found in Ukrain by Czerniaiev in 
1845. Specimens from America described by Peck (1882) as 
6’. Warnei were examined by Hollos (1903) and pronounced spe- 
cifically identical with the European plants. This conclusion 
seems fully justified so far as can be judged by the excellent col- 
ored plate and full description given by Czerniaiev. It is there- 
fore a plant of very wide distribution. Hollos records it from 
Ohio to Wisconsin and Kansas in North America, as well as from 
Europe, Asia, Africa (Algeria), New Zealand, and Australia 
(Banks Peninsula). 
Secotium agaricoides resembles a puffball in general appearance, 
being from 4 to 6 or 8 cm. in diameter; but it stands on a short 
stalk, and the stalk continues through the body of the fungus as 
a columella. The interior is filled with branched and much 
folded lamellae instead of a capillitium. Sometimes the body 
does not dehisce at all ; in other cases, it splits lengthwise or the 
peridium separates slightly from the stalk after the manner of an 
agaric. The spores are olive-brown in color when seen in mass. 
They are ovoid in shape and measure 7 X 5 m- They have smooth, 
thick, impervious walls, with one apical germ pore. They are 
borne in fours on rather long sterigmata, upon clavate basidia, 
which at maturity are about 22 X 6 m- The spore often carries 
with it a part of the sterigma as an appendage. The present study 
attempts to throw some light on the nature of this curious plant 
from the standpoint of development. 
My material consisted of about 100 mature plants and 6 small 
young ones. One 13 mm. and one 15 mm. in diameter were col- 
lected in 1911. The others, 10 mm. tall and 8 mm. in diameter, 
10 mm. tall and 9 mm. in diameter, 4 mm. tall and 3.8 mm. in 
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