AUSTRALIAN FUNGI. 
241 
very short, stem-like base, running into a dense mass of branched, 
cord-like, bright yellow mycelium. Oapillitium yellowish olive, 
dense, elastic ; spores umber in the mass, with an olive tinge, 
globose, smooth, 5 p diam. 
On the ground. New Guinea. 
1316. Scleroderma australe. Massee Grev. xv hi., 26. 
Subglobose, sessile, subplicate below. Peridium thick, almost 
even, externally minutely furfuraceous or felty, dirty-ochre, with a 
rooting base, which is short, abrupt, and fibrous ; internally with 
very indistinct areola?, mass of spores (without definite capillitium), 
purple-brown ; spores globose, sparsely and minutely verruculose, 
6-7 p. 
On soil. Queensland. 
1317. Scleroderma umbrina. Cke. <J- Mass. Grev. xix., 45. 
Stipitate, peridium globose (2^-3 c.m.diam.), coarsely rugulose 
below (when dry), very thin, fragile, and perfectly glabrous above, 
breaking away irregularly, dirty pale ochre, darkest below ; stem 
equal (2| c.m. long, k c.m. or more thick), coarsely and irregularly 
furrowed (when dry), dark brown, passing downwards into a dense 
bulbose mass of intricate mycelium ; mass of gleba dark umber- 
brown ; spores globose, echinulate, brown, 10 p diam. ; dissepi- 
ments almost obsolete at maturity. 
On the ground. Queensland. (Pig. 120.) 
Sub- Genus. AREOLARIA. Forq. Champ. JExot. p. 155. 
Peridium stipitate, cracking above in pentagonal areas. 
1318. Scleroderma (Areolaria) strobilina. Kalch. Grev. 
ix., p. 4. Sacc. Syll. vn., 481. 
Peridium depressedly globose, furnished above with stout angular 
scales, smooth, pallid, at length dehiscing with a fissure ; stem 
solid, rather woody, naked, dilated above, mass of spores distinct 
from the stem, cinereous, becoming brownish ; spores globose, 
verrucose, scarcely pellucid, 5 p diam., turning blackish. 
On the ground. Queensland. 
Genus 27. MYCENASTBUM. Desv. 
Peridium at first fleshy, then solid, cortex double, the outer 
thin, breaking into fragments, the inner thick, indurated and per- 
sistent, dehiscing in a stellate manner ; gleba fleshy, white, then 
densely tow-like, brown. Threads of capillitium strongly developed, 
and usually coarsely spinulose. 
1319. Mycenastrum corium. Desv. Ann. Set. Xat. 1842, 
p. 147.=Scleroderma corium. Sacc. Syll. vn., 474. 
Peridium subglobose, turning whitish, then greyish-brown, even, 
free, coriaceous, splitting above in a stellate manner ; spores 
globose, echinulate, 8 p diam. Threads thick, spinulose. 
On sandy ground. Victoria. Queensland. (Fig. 121.) 
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