A New Species of Tuberaceae for America

Abstract

On August 26, 1930, specimens of Hydnotria carnea Corda were found by the writer, half-buried in the mud, in a path beside the Lower Tunkhanna, a trout stream near Fern Ridge in the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania. Two small potato-like fruit bodies were collected and preserved in 70 per cent alcohol containing a little glycerine. When examined microscopically they proved to be hypogaeous ascomycetes and were identified by the writer as either Hydnotria Tzlasnei Berk. & Br., or Hydnotria carnea Corda according to the descriptions in Hesse's Die Hypogaeen Deutschlands. The fruit bodies were irregularly globose and the size of hickory nuts (2.7 X 2 cm. and 2.3 X 1.7 cm.). They are nearly smooth on the exterior surface with a few small fissures or depressions. The color is between flesh and a rusty brown. To the unaided eye there is no distinct peridium. Any slight floccosity may have been lost when the mud was removed. Small canals present in the gleba are lined with the hymenium. The asci are generally long stiped and cylindrical although some are clavate. In size they average 220-34 tu (in upper portion). The spores are usually uniseriate but occasionally biseriate near the middle of the ascus which then appears to bulge on one side at that point. The number of spores varies. Usually 8 are present but in some cases fewer than that. They are irregularly globose. The exposure is composed of thick blunt warts and varies in color from yellow to dark brown. The size varies from 31-36 X 34-37 p including the warts. The exospore varies from 2.5 to 7.7 jL in thickness due to these warts. A few asci lie at the base of the others and are perpendicular to them. The paraphyses are colorless, irregularly cylindrical, septate, much longer than the asci and about 6.8 / in diameter. The banks along the Little Tunkhanna are suitable for the