A monograph of the genus Calostoma, Desv. 
(Mitremyces, Nees). 
BY 
GEORGE MASSEE. 
With Plate III. 
I. Morphology. 
HE presence in the Royal Herbarium, Kew, of a fine 
JL series of specimens representing the various stages of 
growth in Calostoma cinnabarinum , Desv. ( Mitremyces Intescens, 
Schw.), from 8 mm. in diameter to the mature stage, has 
enabled me to follow the course of development from the 
period of differentiation of the gleba to that of dehiscence. 
The smallest specimen is spherical, 8 mm. across when dry, 
not at all attenuated towards the base, of a pale red colour, 
and covered with a hard, thin, translucent, wrinkled coat ; 
which after soaking for some time in water became very 
much swollen and mucilaginous (Fig. i), and on removal 
from the water broke away in fragments, appearing under 
the microscope as a structureless, colourless mass, with the 
exception of a thin ill-defined peripheral portion of inter- 
woven hyphae with thick mucilaginous walls, which, becoming 
more compact at the base, form there a short stem persisting 
after the disappearance of the upper portion. 
The above structure is in every respect homologous with 
the peridium in the Phalloideae , but differs in being entirely 
deliquescent at an early period ; hence no trace of its presence 
is to be seen in mature specimens. Its appearance as studied 
in the living condition is described as follows by the Rev. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. II. No. V, June 1888.] 
