similar nature to the capillitium are larger, thicker, more branched, 
and the spores in the tissue are very few. 
SYNONYMS. 
The plant was first described as Eycoperdon Corium. It has undoubtedly 
been redescribed under a number of names. Hollos states that twelve of the 
“Sclerodermas” in Saccardo belong here. In this country the plant has been 
mostly known as Mycenastrum spinulosum. 
Specimens in our Collection. 
Illinois, (near Chicago) Dr. D. H. Watson, (near Havana) H. C. Beardslee. 
Minnesota, Minn. Bot. Survey. Iowa, W. J. Teeters, T. H. Macbride. Kansas, E. 
Bartholomew. Colorado, E. B. Sterling, (In great abundance). Nevada, David 
Griffith. Texas, E. P. Ely, T. C. Horton. Washington, C. V. Piper. California, 
(Eos Angeles) L. A. Greata. Canada, T. R. Donnelly. 
Hungary, Dr. E. Hollos. 
212—MYCENASTRUM CORIUM form STERLINGII. 
(Plate 5, Figures 10 and 11.) 
We have received from E. B. Sterling, Denver, Colo., and from 
him alone, a remarkable form which instead of being smooth as usual, 
has the peridium marked with large scales (see plate 5, figs. 10 and 11). 
When we first received young specimens of this plant, we supposed it 
to be the young of Calvatia sculpturatum, but the Mycenastrum capil¬ 
litium showed its true nature. Since, an abundance of material sent by 
Mr. Sterling exhibits all grades of connecting forms between it and 
the ordinary smooth form, we question if it is even entitled to a dis¬ 
tinctive name. Had specimens of the extreme form been sent to 
Berkeley he would probably have called it a marked “new .species” 
and our literature would have been burdened with one more synonym. 
The Genus Catastoma will appear in next issue. 
213—MICRO-PHOTOGRAPHS. 
Mr. Uranus Hord, an expert microscopist as well as photographer, 
has installed in the Eloyd library a micro-photographic apparatus. We 
thus have facilities for making micro-photographs as easily as we can 
photograph ordinary objects. For the spores of the Gastromycetes 
we shall adopt a uniform magnification of an even thousand. This 
has one strong advantage. As a micron is a millionth part of a 
meter, one thousand microns are equal to a millimeter. Therefore 
the size of the spores can be readily ascertained by a millimeter scale, each 
millimeter of the micro-photograph representing a micron of the actual size of 
the object. Individual observers may vary as to the size of the spores 
when measured by an eye piece scale, but we cannot see how there can 
be any error in a process of micro-photography where the instruments 
that magnify and photograph are always exactly the same. 
120 
