14 
Journal of Mycology 
[Vol. 9 
A NEW SPECIES OF CALOSTOMA. 
BY GEO. F. ATKINSON. 
During the autumn of 1902 I received several different 
species of fungi from Miss M. S. Percival, Rugby, Tenn. 
Among them were several interesting species of Calostoma. 
Among the first lot sent were four specimens of Calostoma 
lutescens (Schw.) Burnap, and several specimens of Calostoma 
ravenelii (Berk.) Masee. Miss Percival had correctly recognized 
C. lutescens, from the pale yellow inner surface of the exoperidium 
as it peels off. Although she made diligent search for C. cinna- 
barinum* Desv., she found no specimens. Having never before 
seen C. lutescens and having never before examined the spores of 
C. ravenelii, although I had collected during September, 1901, 
in the mountains of North Carolina, what I took to be this species, 
I requested from Miss Percival additional material. The second 
lot received December 5th, contained one more specimen of C. 
lutescens, no specimens of C. cinnabarinum, but quite a number 
of specimens of C. ravenelii. Among these there seemed to be 
great variations in size, the foot stalk varying in length from I 
cm. up to 6 cm. and all the specimens showing numerous ad¬ 
herent warts over the middle and lower portion of the inner 
peridium. This seemed at the time, quite a remarkable feature 
of C. ravenelii, since all writers state that the foot stalk is short. 
On examining the spores of some of the larger specimens, 
I observed that they were smooth as in C. ravenelii, but 
smaller. At the time I was not especially impressed by this 
fact, and yet I found that it was constantly recurring to my mind. 
On January 9th, 1903 I undertook a careful examination of the 
material and was surprised to find that the specimens with the 
short foot stalk had large and very variable spores, while those 
with the long foot stalk had small and little variable spores. 
At first I thought it would be impossible to separate the two kinds 
without an examination of the spores. But after some study, 
I found it quite easy in most cases to separate them by the gross 
characters alone, even those in which the foot stalk was inter¬ 
mediate, i. e. of the same length in the two species. 
The plant with the longer foot stalk and smaller spores I 
will call Calostoma microsporum. The spores are usually oblong, 
smooth, more rarely elliptical and measure from 6-9 x 3.5-4.5, 
rarely reaching 10 fi long and 5 n wide. B'urnap, Botanical 
Gazette, Vol. 23, page 190, 1897, gives no measurement for the 
spores of Calostoma ravenelii, but merely says, “spores elliptical, 
oblong, smooth.” Massee, Ann. Bot. Vol. 2, page 48, 1888, gives 
the measurement and says: “spores elliptical to oblong, smooth, 
*If the earlier specific name given by Persoon is retained this plant 
would be called Calostoma callostoma (Pers.) 
