appropriate for this Geaster, it is hygrometricus, and is thoroughly 
established by a hundred years of constant and universal use. The 
early botanists who had very vague ideas as to Geasters thought they 
were all “stellate Lyeoperdons”. Linnaeus’ “Lycoperdon stellatum” 
is simply a generic idea for the genus Geaster. He knew no .species 
and referred to “Lycoperdon stellatum” every picture of a Geaster he 
found, some half dozen different species. To attempt to substitute for 
a definite, descriptive name such as hygrometricus a vague, meaning¬ 
less name like “stellatum” seems to me very bad. Nor is that all. 
Those who take Morgan’s idea of the genus Astraeus, and substitute a 
new combination, “Astraeus stellatus” commit a further violation of 
their own “rules” of which they are probably not aware. Morgan 
was not the first to isolate Geaster hygrometricus on structural grounds. 
Corda did exactly the same thing, but in a different manner so that 
there still remains abundant excuse to juggle “Astraeus stellatus” back 
to “Geaster stellatus” and juggle all the other Geasters to Plecostoma, 
forming new combinations for all the Geasters. The early workers 
with the Gastromycetes, especially Fries, worked mostly with books. 
Fries “Systema” is a very complete historical account up to that time. 
It is a simple matter to take a copy of Pritzel, look up dates and juggle 
the names about on the synonyms given by Fries. It is an easy way 
of gaining a little notoriety, neither honest nor meritorious. 
“Geastrum minimum” type from Chevallier, a plant of great 
historical interest, probably the only one in existence. It is the plant 
we have illustrated as Schmidelii, but as Chevallier published fifteen 
years before Vittadini, of course. Chevallier gave a very poor figure 
of his plant and a recent guess has been published that it was Geaster 
asper. 
Geaster granulosus from Fuckel=G. minimus, confirming syno¬ 
nym already given. 
Secotium Thunii type from Schulzer. The plant does not differ 
in any respect from Secotium acuminatum. 
Geaster melanocephalus, Ostergothland, E. Fries. I do not think 
the name was ever published, but record it in case it has been. The 
plant is Geaster limbatus. 
Lycoperdon constellatum, type Fries. This characteristic plant 
is as is well known the same as Persoon’s L. echinatum. 
Geaster fimbriatus, which is the most common species in Central 
Europe, is abundantly represented in the collection at Upsala. Fries 
did not distinguish the American plant (which Berkeley called “sac- 
catus”) as different, for the specimens from Pennsylvania are labeled 
‘ ‘fimbriatus”. 
Geaster mammosus. Though Fries is often cited as the author 
of this species, it is evident both from his description and from the only 
specimen in his collection (included among specimens of hygrometricus) 
that he did not know Chevallier’s plant. 
172 
