SECTION STERREBECKIA. 
SCLERODERMA GEAvSTER (Plate 30, fig. 1, 2 & 3) — Peri- 
diuni thick, black, opening by stellate lobes. 
This is not a rare plant in Europe and the United States, but I 
have no notes of having seen the typical form from Australia. It can 
be recognized even in the unopened state by the thick rough, (pale 
colored when young) peridium. 
Specimens in our Collection. 
New Caledonia , given by P. Hariot. 
SCLERODERMA ELAVIDUM (Plate30, fig. 4, 5 & 6).—Peri¬ 
dium smooth, thick, yellowish, opening by stellate lobes. 
This is the common form in Australia and the numerous speci¬ 
mens that reached Berkeley were always referred to Scleroderma Geas- 
ter. It can w T ell be considered a small, smooth, yellow form of that 
species with a thinner peridium. The plant is not rare in the United 
States, less frequent in Europe. 
Unopened specimens cannot be told from Scleroderma cepa. 
Specimens in our Collection. 
Australia, Adelaide, Walter Gill. Melbourne, W. R. Guilfoyle. 
SECTION EUSCLERODERMA. 
SCLERODERMA CEPA (Plate 81, fig- 1).—Peridium thick, 
smooth, yellowish, opening by an irregular mouth. 
This is not a rare species and widely distributed. The following 
from Australia may be unexpanded specimens of Scleroderma flavidum. 
Specimens in our Collection. 
Andover, New Zealand, Robert Brown. Sydney , Australia, R. T. Baker. 
SCLERODERMA TEXENSE (Plate 31, fig. 2, 3, 4& 5).—Peri¬ 
dium thick, smooth. Cells of the gleba subpersistent. 
We have seen at Kew several collections from Australia, of 
this species, originally noted from Texas. It is characterized by 
the persistent gleba cells, a character tending to throw the plant 
into the genus Polysaecum.f It is a rare plant in the United States 
and does not occur in Europe to our knowledge It is really, I think, 
an exaggerated form of the plant with yellow flocci which Fries called 
Scleroderma Bovista. 
t The genera Scleroderma and Polysaccum run together in the nature of the gleba and in an 
intermediate ease we decide by the nature of the peridium. 
Note. —We have found at Kew no type specimens of Scleroderma pandanaceum (L,inn. 
Jour. 18-171). Scleroderma aureum (Grev. 18-26), Scleroderma australe (Grev. 18-26). One of them 
is said to have “smooth” spores which would be a very unusual character in the genus Scleroderma. 
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