THE STRUCTURE OF SIMBLUM SPHAERO- 
CEPHALUM 
Henry S. Conard 
(With Plates 96 and 97) 
In October, 1911, Miss Winnie Gilbert, a student at Grinnell 
College, Iowa, brought in a specimen of the pink stink-horn, 
Simblum sphaerocephalum Schlecht. It was found on the north 
side of a deep railroad cut one mile west of Grinnell. Further 
search in this place resulted in the collection of several mature 
specimens and a number of “ eggs.” They grew about half way 
up the slope, facing south, on Marshall silt loam that had slid 
down the bank many years ago, and at about the level of the 
boundary between the loess and the glacial drift. Perhaps there 
are special moisture conditions at this level, though other vegeta- 
tion does not suggest this. With them was Poa pratensis as domi- 
nant plant, as well as seedlings of Acer negundo, Physalis spp.. 
Aster spp., etc. Two or three weeks later my colleague. Professor 
H. W. Norris, found specimens on a hillside above Skunk River, 
three miles southwest of Turner Station (southeast corner of 
section 5, Richland Township, Jasper County, Iowa). Some of 
the smaller “ eggs ” were cut open and killed in chromacetic fluid 
and later sectioned on the serial microtome. The rest of the 
material was preserved in alcohol. The following studies were 
made of the preserved material. My best alcoholic specimens 
have since been deposited with Professor Macbride at the State 
University of Iowa, Iowa City. A brief account of this find was 
presented to the Iowa Academy of Science in April, 1912.^ 
Simblum sphaerocephalum was originally described by Schlecht- 
endal (1861) from Argentina, where it is common. Similar 
plants have been collected in southern Brazil and in Venezuela, 
and described under different names. In North America it is 
known from Astoria and Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island ; 
1 Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., 19: 103. 1912. 
264 
