The gleba first turns bright olive,* finally dark purplish brown. 
Capillitium of peculiar, short, pointed threads, bearing little spiny 
points. Spores (fig. 29) globose, large, 
8-10 mic. warted. 
This plant is of wide distribution in 
the world, and on sandy plains often oc¬ 
curs in the greatest abundance. It has 
received a large number of synonyms of 
which Mycenastrum olivaceum and My- 
cenastrum phaeotrichum (see foot note, 
*) have been applied to Australian 
specimens. They are compiled in Saccardo as Scleroderma olivaceum 
and Scleroderma phaeotrichum.f 
Specimens in our Collection. 
New Zealand, Andover, Robert Brown. 
Australia, Warracknabeal, F. M. Reader, Norwood, J. G. O. Tepper. 
Melbourne, W. R. Guilfoyle. 
THE GENUS CATASTOMA. 
Plants globose without sterile base. Bxoperidium usually thick 
and breaking away from the inner peridium excepting a small portion 
which generally remains as little cup at the base.'! Capillitium (Fig.30)§ 
of short, simple, unbranched threads, which 
is the character oi the genus. Spores globose, 
more or less rough, sometimes pedicellate. 
Australia is rich in this genus and of 
of the four species, three are known, each 
from a single collection and only known 
from Australia. . The gleba colors vary 
much but we would not place too much 
stress on a character drawn from one collec¬ 
tion. 
•If specimens are collected when the gleba is in the olive condition, it retains this color. 
Mycenastrum olivaceum.(Gt ev. 1 ri -S3) is based on such specimens. Mycenastrum phaeotrichum 
(Hook. Jour. 48-4 1 8) originally referred to Mycenastrum Corium by Perkeley, was afterwards 
separated by him because the gleba color did not correspond to that of the specimens received 
from Paris. The plant is the same in other particulars, and the gleba color of any particular 
specimen is of no importance. 
fOf the many changes in plant names that are made in compiling in Saccardo, none perhaps 
have less merit than the system which still peisists of compiling Mycenastrum as Scleroderma. 
The two genera are widely different. And when Bovistellas are described as Mycenastrums, as 
they have been, to compile them as Sclerodermas reaches the limit, for of the characters on 
which genera are based these two have not a single one in common. 
JThe original American species have a very peculiar structure (see Myc. Notes p. 121). 
When the plant is mature the outer peridium breaks in a somewhat circumscissal manner, part 
remaining as a cup in the ground and part remaining attached to the inner peridium as a kind of 
cup. The inner peridium with this cup at the top becomes loose and is rolled over the surface of 
the ground. It opens by a little mouth opposite the portion to which the cup is attached, hence 
that part of the inner peridium which is the base of the growing plant. Most species of Cat- 
astoma have a small portion of the exoperidium attached to the specimen as collected but that 
they all grow in this way is not assured. Catastoma anomala does not as I have had an opportunity 
to observe in some fine specimens sent me by R. T. Baker. 
{jThe genus Catastoma is of wide distribution, and is most strangely distinct from Bovista in 
its capillitium characters (cfr. figs. 25 and 80). The genus was universally overlooked by European 
writers on puff balls until it was pointed out by Morgan an American mycologist. Then it was at 
once adopted by all recent European writers and one of them (Hollos) has tried to steal it by the 
trickery of name jugglery. 
Fig. 29. 
26 
