puff-balls, but with a granular substance that feels “gritty” when 
rubbed between the fingers. These granules are peridioles; they are 
little sacs containing spores. They 
are small but can be seen under 
a hand glass. 
The genus is well known in the 
United States by one species, Arach- 
nion album which is fairly common. 
Similar (or perhaps the same) species 
occur in South America, West In¬ 
dies, South Africa and Australia. 
In the latter country its occurrence 
is based on a single known speci¬ 
men collected more than sixty years 
ago. » 
ARACHNION DRUMMON DII.—Plant globose, without sterile 
base, about 1 cm. in diameter. Peridium smooth, thin, fragile, ruptur¬ 
ing irregularly. Peridioles irregular in size. Spores globose, smooth, 
5-6 mic. apiculate, or short pedicellate. 
Arachnion Drummondii is very doubtfully distinct from Arach- 
nion album of the United States. The spores are slightly larger, 
more strongly apiculate and the habits of the plant according to the 
collector’s notes are different.* The plant was named (Jour. Linn. 
18-389) incidentally with Agaricus cycnopotamia (but can hardly be 
called described) as follows — “attached to the specimen is a species of 
Arachnion (the spores are globose and .0002-.0003 inch in diameter) 
which may be called A. Drummondii, Berk.’’ This led to a funny error. 
Saccardo compiles it “ad Locellinam cycnopotamiam Berk,” and in 
Cooke’s Handbook we find the statement “Attached to Agaricus 
(Acetabularia) cycnopotamia.” The plant has nothing whatever to 
do with the agaric excepting that Drummond sent it to Berkeley glued 
on the same sheet of paper. 
THE GENUS MESOPHELLIA. 
This is one of the most curious genera I have ever seen. It has 
little relationship to any other described genus. The plants are sub¬ 
terranean, growing in the sand. In the center is a hard core, white and 
of the texture of the finest grained hard wood. No other fungi to my 
knowledge produces a tissue as hard as this. Surrounding this core is 
the inner peridium, at a distance of 3 to 5 mm. from it, and joined to 
the core by ligaments of the same hard tissue that proceed from the 
Enclosed you will find also some portion of a curious fungus with the habit of a small Lyeo- 
perdon. It is almost subterranean, just reaching the surface with its upper part. It differs from 
polysaccum in having the sacs uniformly not larger than a poppy seed, and in not having them 
iubedded in a matrix. Each sac small as it is contains numerous sporules. The whole is pure 
snow white turning yellow.”—Drummond’s note to Berkeley. It is a good account of the plant and 
shows Drummond was an observing man. 
39 
