100 
Mycologia 
Corda (1854) in S. Gtieinzii Kunze. No cysts are described by 
Corda for S. melanosporum Berk, or 5 . coarotatum Berk. If, 
therefore, Fischer has done well in uniting Endoptychum and 
Elasmomyces with Secotium, we must recognize two or perhaps 
three well marked subgenera. The other species of Secotium are 
not well enough known to admit of discussion. 
Regarding the other genera united with Secotium by Fischer 
(1899) iri his Secotiaceae, Polyplocium, as Fischer himself notes, 
is nearer to Boletinus than it is to Secotium. Gyrophragmium 
may prove to be near to Secotium, but Fischer regards it as close 
to Montagnites and Coprinus, to which Secotium is certainly not 
closely allied. As to MacOzvenites and Cauloglossum, too little 
is known of them, but they do not seem to resemble Secotium 
so closely as the latter resembles Agaricus. 
The Hysterangiaceae and Hymenogastraceae which make up 
the rest of the Hymenogastrineae of Fischer are each fairly homo- 
geneous in themselves. They relate quite distinctly to the Clath- 
raceae, Lycoperdacaeae, and Nidulariaceae. They resemble Seco- 
tiaceae only in the fact that their spores mature while the hymeno- 
phore is still fleshy. But this is equally true of Agaricaceae. 
There remains therefore no real unity in Fischer’s Hymenogas- 
trineae and that author’s opinion seems strengthened that the 
Secotiaceae, at least should be dismembered and its genera distrib- 
uted among the Hymenomycetes. 
Fischer (1900) and Lotsy (1907) have considered Secotium as 
a possible point of departure for the Phallaceae. Lotsy refers 
directly to the little known S’, olbium. The argument is based on 
the manner of development of the hymenophore. Further, 
Corda’s figure of S'. Gueinzii (PI. 6, fig. 12) shows trabeculae 
running through the gleba from the top of the stipe to the perid- 
ium, after the manner of a young clathroid, but Corda’s section 
cannot be median, as it shows no columella ; and it throws no 
light on the origin of the hymenophore. We have seen that in 
respect to development S. agaric oides is precisely like Agaricus 
campestris and A. arvensis as described by Atkinson (1906, 1914a'). 
It is not like Phallus or Mutinus, nor can the stipe and columella 
of Secotium be likened to the stalk of a pballokl ; for the phal- 
loid stem probably represents a sterilized gleba, and is therefore 
