MYCOLOGICAL NOTES. 
BY O. O. LLOYD, 
No. 18. 
CINCINNATI, O. JULiY, 1904. 
285—THE GENUS TRICHASTER. 
(Plate 17.) 
This genus can be described in a few words as being a geaster 
with a deciduous endoperidium. The general appearance and shape of 
the plant, the spore mass, the spores and capillitium all are the same 
as a geaster. Indeed, the few times it has been collected in Germany 
it was taken for a geaster that had accidentally lost the endoperidium. 
The genus was described by Czerniaiev from the steppes of Russia in 
1845 but he gave no figure of it and the plant was really unknown to 
modern compilers of books, who either put it among the doubtful 
genera as it is to be found in Engler & Prantl, or illustrated it as an 
abnormal form of a geaster as shown by Hollos, who was unaware that 
he was dealing with Czerniaiev’s genus. Czerniaiev sent specimens abun¬ 
dantly to both Berkeley and Fries and when I first saw them at Upsala 
my impression was that it was a specimen of Geaster fornicatus that 
had lost its endoperidium by exposure to the hard winters of Russia. 
I have since changed my mind and I believe now that it is a valid 
genus and a good species. 
The abundant specimens sent by Czerniaiev to Kew and Upsala 
and the three collections, one in the Museum at Berlin and two in the 
herbarium of Prof. Magnus all have the same character. The endo¬ 
peridium is caducous and falls away as soon as the exoperidium opens. 
The exoperidium is not the same as Geaster fornicatus, not only being 
differently cut but never having the cup at the base which is the main 
character of Geaster fornicatus. I have seen five collections of Tri- 
chaster and many of Geaster fornicatus and have never seen them in¬ 
termixed. If it were an abnormal form, occasionally this form would 
occur with the normal or vice-versa. In addition Czerniaiev gives the 
straightforward account of his plant a man does who knows what he is 
writing about. He states that it grows in groups in deep forests and 
gardens, and develops on t]ie top of the ground which he points out “is 
different from the development of geasters,” (as it is from all those 
that grow with him.) 
The plant is evidently abundant on the steppes of Russia* but 
very rare elsewhere in Europe where only three collections are known. 
One specimen I found unlabeled in Link’s herbarium, collected at Pots¬ 
dam near Berlin. Two collections are in the herbarium of Prof. 
Magnus,one collected in thepark at Magdeburg, Germany, by Reinhardt, 
the other in Unterengarten Valley Switzerland by Dr. Magnus. 
* Ukraine, the region from which Czerniaiev wrote is in Southern Russia, east of the Car¬ 
pathian mountains and north of the Black Sea. 
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