Mycological System (1832) - Page 19

8
GEASTER

The peridium hidden in the earth is not described, but we do not doubt the genus. ,, Stipe 14 inches long, 1/2 inch thick, ventricose, covered over the entire surface with scales 1 inch long, 1--3 lines wide, which offer a lacerated cortex, hollow internally, with very shining silky diaphanous fibers placed parallel along the entire length of the stipe, but in the middle of the cavity, there is a cord of these that forms the pith, which sends fibers into the pileus and the cortex; having removed the cortex (scales), layers nearly 1/2 line thick of whitish longitudinally decurrent fibers cover the woody part, which I observed to be a thick, subspongy, yellowish line. Pileus sub-flat, elevated in the middle, coriaceous, thin, hardly spongy, white and smooth underneath, cellular and paleaceous chaffy above, luteous-brown, powdery, with very copious spores, which are diaphanous under the microscope." Liboschitz l. c. In sandy soil near the Volga. Steven. (v. illustration)

Obs. 1. A singular species of Boletus. Pallas Russ. Reis. 2. p. 744. t. IV. f. 3. (where it is called Agaricus radiosus) is undoubtedly a fungus of its own genus, very similar in stipe to Batarrea, but rather an analogue of Ascroë. ,, Stipe very long, hidden in the sand to 1/3, scarious thin and dry, of a tender spongy substance. The disc of the pileus is thin, flat, and completely lacking lamellae underneath, which arise at the margin and spread like rays, black when dry, while the rest of the substance is grayish-white." In sandy pine forests near the Irtysh. (v. illustration)

Obs. 2. Vaillant in Bot. par. p. 123. n. 15. amply describes a Lycoperdon so paradoxical that no one has attempted to classify it. But it is most evidently the primordial state of Phallus impudicus.

II. GEASTER. Mich.

Mich. gen. pl. p. 220. Pers. disp. p. 6. Link. diss. 1. p. 32. Nees Syst. p. 138. Fries Syst. orb. veg. 1. p. 138.! Chev. par. p. 358. Lycop. Geastres. Scop. Car. II. p. 489. L. stellata. Woodw. in Linn. Transact. II. p. 32—62! Myriostoma Plecostoma etc, Desv. (Sterrebeckia Link. s. Actinodermium Nees.)