JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF rBXLADB&FBZA. VOL. V.-t..PART I. ! PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY, BT J. BARDIITG. 1825 V\' 9k' v.!) CONTENTS OF VOLUME V. PART I. Page. Officers of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- delphia, for tlie ^eai ISSJO. - - - 1 Description of a number of new American Species of Shpserise. By Lewis D. de Schweinitz. - S Experiments on Anthracite, Plumbago, &c. By Lardner Vanuxem. - - - - - 17 Additions to the Ornithology of the United States. By Charles Bonaparte. - - - - 28 Descriptions of new Species of Hister and Hololepta, inhabiting the United States. By Thomas Say. 32 Description of a new Fish of the genus Salmo. By C. A. Lesueur. - - - - - 48 Description of a new crystalline form of Apophyllite, Laumonite, and Amphibole, and of a variety of Pearlstone. By Gerard Troost, M. D. - 51 Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson's Orni- thology. By Charles Bonaparte. (Continued.) 57 Descriptions of four new species of Mureenophis. By C. A. Lesueur. - . 107 Note on the genus Condylura of Iliiger. By J. D. Godman, M. D. - - - - 109 Description of anew species of Salamander. By Jacob - - - - Green. , - 116 Description of a new species of the genus Saurus, (Cu- vier.) By C. A. Lesueur. - - - 118 Descriptions of some new species of Fresh Water and Land Shells of the United States. By Thomas Say. ------ 119 Description of two genera of the natural order Cruci- feree. By Thomas Nuttall. - - - 132 JV CONTENTS. Note. By J. D. Godman, M. D. - - - 135 Description of a new species of Salatnandra. By R. Harlan, M. D. - - - - 136 Notes to the paper entitled, " Descriptions of ten spe- cies of South American Birds." By Cliarles Bonaparte. - - - - - 137 On the species of the Linnsean genus Asterias, inhabit- ing the coast of the United States. By Tho- mas Say. ..... 141 Description of a variety of the Coluber fulvius, Linn, a new species of Scincus, and two new species of Salamandra. By R. Harlan, M. D. - 154 Observations on a species of Anemone of the section Pulsatilla, indigenous to the United States. By Thomas Nuttall. .... 153 Descriptions of new species of Coleopterous Insects inhabiting the United States. By Thomas Say. 160 JOURNAL OP THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. LIST OF OFFICERS FOB THE YEAH 1825. President. William Maclure. Vice Presidents. Zaccheus Collins, George Ord. Corresponding Secretary. Reuben Haines. according Secretary. William H. Keating. Treasurer. Jacob Gilliams. Librarian. Jacob Peirce. Curators. Thomas Say, C. A. Lesueur, John P. Wetherill, Isaac Hays, M. D. Auditors. John M. Brewer, Samuel G. Morton, M. D. Judah Dobson. VOL. V .IIIN'K. 1825. 1 Committee of Publication. Thomas Say. Isaac Hays, M. D. Isaac Lea. R. E. Griffith, M. D. William H. Keating. ; SPHJERIA. Description of a number of new American Species »/SpHiERi^. By Lewis D. de Schweinitz. Jtead February 15, 1825. The following pages include the description of a number of new American species of Sphjebije, a genus of the order Pyrexomycetes, of the class Gasteromycetes, of Fungi, arranged according to the system of Dr. Elias Fries, and is supplementary to my Synopsis of Carolinian Fungi, published in the Commentaries of the society of Naturalists at Leipzig, by Dr. Schwaegrichen. Of 528 species of this most comprehensive genus described in Fries' abridgment, 330 have been ob- served by me in America, and a large proportion of the residue will yet, doubtless, be found. The new species, exclusive of what Fries has incorporated, amounts to 112. The whole number of American Fungi which I have hitherto observed, falls little short of 2000, and I am fully persuaded as many more remain undiscovered. Our immense forests, humid climate, and variety of higher ranking vege- table productions, may well warrant this conclusion. It is also worthy of remark that, of the number of truly geogenous Fungi, or those not usually deemed parasitic, because they proceed directly from the soil, (for no Fungus has ever been found on rocks, or per- haps on soil wholly free from vegetable matter,) very few comparatively are met with peculiar to America as for instance, in the genera Agaricts, BotEXUs. 4 SPH^RIA. Hydnum, &c. and the same as far as we know, ap- plies even to tropical climates, regarding their fung- ous productions, amounting indeed to little more than the fact that the parasitic fungous forms are com- mensurate with the immense variety of species of higher grades. Considering this as a supplement to the Synopsis of North Carolina Fungi, I shall enumerate the Eu- ropean species I have here met with since, with such observations as may be necessary, besides describing the new species; and propose to continue this cata- logue through the whole genus at a future time. Sph^ria. § I. Cordyceps. a. Series. Hypocrea. 1. S. geoglossum. L. V. S. Of a fleshy substance, very much like that of Geoglossum, whitish inter- nally, very black externally : capitidum or clavula, tongue-shaped, compressed and canaliculate in the middle, with an obtuse subfalcate apex, and densely covered by very small, oblong, crowded sphserulse, immersed in the substance, but prominent to a per- ceptible degree on the black surface, with small, and scarcely prominent ostiola : stipes nearly thrice the length of the clavula, somewhat squamulose and hir- sute, of the same colour with the clavula, fleshy, fibrously dividing, and white within ; the whole plant about one inch long, and very slender. It diff'ers materially from S. ophioglossoides, by its tender and ~5PH.'EKIA. 5 brittle substance, slender shape, and total absence of yellow colour inside. PI. I, fig. 4, a, with magnified analysis of b, and c, section. Found at New York, and communicated to me by Dr. Torrey. It almost exactly resembles a Geoglos- suM, (especially G. hirsutum) but the capitulum is manifestly sphseriferous. 2. S. capitata. Fries, p. ii. p. 324. I found this rare fungus at Salem, on vegetable eartii, and more certainly without a tuber, much less growing on the Scleroderma cervinum, hitherto vainly sought by me in America. 3. S. mucronata, L. V. S. Synops. Fung. Carol, p. 2. Fries, p. 326. I insert this species, found by me very rarely on Liriodendron roots in Carolina, al- though sufficiently described in the Synopsis, in order to give a good figure, because I have not met with it since, and have communicated my only good speci- men to Dr. Schwaegrichen, merely preserving the drawing. PI. I, fig. 1, natural size; cr, with analysis; b. magnified piece of clavula ; c, section magnified. b. Series. Hypoxylon. 4. S. subterra)iea,h.V. S. pi. I, fig. 3, nal. size. analyzed. Caulescent, suberose, undivided and very long, with lengthened, gray, pulverulent, entire apex; colour of the rest, blackish. Tiiesc stems, of half a foot or more in length.. r\<c from a hirs\ite, suherosr. () SPHJERIA. base, and are vei-y often variously bent, of a suberose texture, and clothed half way up from the base by a thin, brownish-black tomentum ; the perithecia are dispersed here and there in the pulverulent part of the stem, and appear rarely. The species is consid- erably allied to S. carpophila, from which its size and place of nativity however easily distinguish it. In mines and wells. New Jersey. Communicated by Dr. Torrey, often considerably more than six inches in length. 3. S. JIabellifor?Jiis,L.Y.S. Merisma mgrj^es, p. 85, Synops. F. C. ed. Schwsegr. Having now com- pletely ascerUiined that the Fungus described under the above name, is really a Sph^ria of the present family, I correct it here, and communicate a figure, pi. I,/. 5, a, nat. size: b, c, magnified specimens; d, section ; e, magnified surface of fertile ones. The peri- thecia are produced in the fertile specimens on the palmately expanded fimbriate summits, of a vivid incarnate colour, which colour remains when in fruc- tification. Fertile specimens, however, have, as is usual in the family, their summits less expanded, some- times nearly cylindrical, and cease to be pulverulent; the bulb or tuber at base is often proportionably very large, and the stems constantly very thick, in propor- tion to their length. I have never met with a speci- men exceeding iialf an inch in length. This species exclusively inhabits decayed branches of very soft kinds of wood, e. g. Salix, VibuiusUM. &c. in moist woods, Salem, N. C. 9PH«RIA. 7 § II. Poronia. 6. S. pomla, L, V. S. Resembling an inverted Pe- ziZA, bursting fasciculately from beneath the epider- mis, showing 2—4 pedicillate, pendulous cupulas in a bunch, the margin of the cupula bent in and thick, the disk flat and pruinose ; colour of the whole fungus white, tinged with brown ; size of each cupula about one or two lines. The perithecia are small, oblong, lutescent, crowded in a single tier (nionosticha,) to- tally immersed in the pulverulently pruinose disk, with black and scarcely prominent ostiola ; substance internally suberose, albescent; externally, the cupulae and proportionably thick stipes into which each is contracted, are somewhat squamose or furfuraceous. PL II, fig. 6, a, nat. size; b, and c, magnified bunches; d, section magnified. A most remarkable species, communicated to me by Dr. Torrey, bursting from beneath the epidermis of Fraxinus; it is strictly of this section, and the only one besides the European Poronia, which I consi- der genuine. Notwithstanding indefatigable atten- tion, I have never been able to find the S. punctata (PoROXiA, Peziza punctata, auctor. veter.) in America. It is not very rare on horse dung in Eu- rope. The ^.Candida, L. V. S. (Synops. Carol, page 3, n. 20.) is located by Fries as another species of this family.