The separate plants lie almost contiguous. The peridia are 
dark brown, in color, and strongly marked each with a determinate 
fimbriate mouth. The capillitia are colored, long, tortuose threads 
which are irregularly bent and thickened. They appear to me un¬ 
branched. Spores subglobose, finely echinulate, 6-7 mic.* The fresh 
plant according to Berkeley “exhales a strong scent of aniseed.” 
That the odor is strong we judge from the collection notes of Mac- 
Owan “ Non oculis sed naso detexi.” 
BROOMEIA AND DIPLOCYSTIS- 
When we wrote on Diplocystis (p. 141) we had never seen 
Broomeia and really did not know the difference between them. When 
we became familiar with both plants it became evident that there is. 
no great resemblance between them excepting that both consist of 
numerous individuals growing gregarious on a common stroma. The 
stroma of Diplocystis is flat, rather thin, and dark in color. That of 
Broomeia is thick, convex, and flesh colored. The exoperidium of 
Broomeia is universal to the cluster; that of Diplocystis individual to 
each plant. The mouth of Broomeia is strongly determinate; that of 
Diplocystis indeterminate. The capillitia of the two are quite dif¬ 
ferent. The illustration in Engler and Prantl of Broomeia, from the 
drawing of Fitch is excellent. The “original” illustration of Diplo- 
cj^stis in the same work is inaccurate. 
293—BA.TT AREOPSIS ARTINI. 
(Plate 22.) 
This is one of the recent additions to the genera of Gastromy- 
cetes described and figured by Dr Hennings in Hedwigia 1902. Only 
one specimen is known which grew under abnormal conditions and was 
probably modified by its surroundings. It was found at Alexandria, 
Egypt under an asphaltum pavement two inches thick which it had 
raised up by force, a circumstance so unusual that the specimen 
was put in alcohol and sent to Berlin. There it was found to belong 
to an undescribed genus All that reached Berlin was the volva, stem, 
and cap covered with gleba. The peridium nature, if it possesses one, 
is unknown. The plant has a general resemblance to a Battarrea but 
it is quite different in the nature of the gleba. This is composed of 
cells filled with spores, somewhat of the nature of the gleba of a Poly- 
saccum but the cells seem to be formed of plates with partitions. The 
color of the gleba is similiar to Battarrea and the spores are similiar, 
but the plant has none of the “annulated cells” of that genus. The 
capillitium is scanty and appears to me to be part of the hyphae of the 
walls, rather than free threads mixed with the spores. 
We present a photograph of the volva, stem, and cap (the latter 
two views). But we shall not attempt to reconstruct the plant. Dr. 
Hennings tells me the figure in Hedwigia was arranged according to a 
sketch sent with the plant, but there is no scar on the concave side of 
the cap, which I think would be the case if the stem were so attached. 
It is a most interesting plant and we hope additional specimens will be 
found in natural habitat so that more can be learned about it. 
* These dimensions differ from those given in Saeeardo. 
194 
