[Massee] Small; stem slender, 1.5 cm. high, 3 mm. thick, solid, equal or slightly incrassated downwards, pale brown, passing through the gleba as a columella and expanding at the apex into a thick wall; peridium 1.5 cm . across, subglobose, deeply umbilicate below, pale brown, smooth; flesh of stem and wall of peridium whitish; gleba brown, cells small, irregularly polygonal; basidia clavate, tetrasporous, sterigmata very slender, elongated, spores obliquely elliptical, tips acute, smooth, pale reddish-brown, 7 x 4um. On the ground. Sulphur Springs, New Zealand. (Gunn.) (Type in Herb. Berk., Kew.) [JAC] This is the protologue from Grevillea v19, 1890. However, the name first turns up in Grevillea v11, 1883 in the list of Australian Fungi by Cooke where it says "Secotium Gunnii, Berk, in Herb. Berk., No, 4412. Sulphur springs, Tasmania.". The name next turns up in de Toni's enumeration of lycoperdaceae in Saccardo's Syllogue v7, 1888, p55 as "Secotium Gunnii Berk. in Herb. Hab. Sulphur springs, Tasmania.". In 1895 it is listed again by Cooke in his handbook of Australian Fungi as 'Tasmania'. The first reference after the protologue to Sulphur Springs New Zealand is in Saccardo Syllogue v11, part 3, p157, 1895. From then Cunningham's references are to the type by Gunn from Sulphur Springs, Rotorua, and material by Rodway from Tasmania. The type material in Berkeley’s herbarium (probably the source of data in all publications) shows an open cap and has the conflicting annotation "Sulphur Springs, Gunn", by an anonymous author (not Gunn or Berkeley, but maybe Massee). The problem is that Ronald Gunn never visited New Zealand, and there is no Sulphur Springs in Tasmania, but there is in New Zealand. One, or both of these assertions is incorrect and subsequent authors appear to have gone one way or the other. There is a non-online catalogue of his Tasmanian collecting localities (NSW) that should be checked for Sulphur Springs. The Kew herbarium sheet is annotated 257 in Gunn’s distinctive handwriting. Gunn allocated ‘shipment numbers’ to collections of taxa he posted to the Hookers. In his (online State Library NSW) catalogue 257 belongs to a batch of Lycopodium ferns sent in 1833, but it is possible he numbered fungi separately. His catalogue contains just a single page of fungi and 257 is not mentioned. Subsequently there is no mention of this collection in Berkeley's Decades of Fungi. The collection must date from the Hooker(s)-Gunn correspondence from 1832 to 1860 and material passed to Berkeley. The herbarium sheet annotation of ‘Sulphur Springs’ (probably by Massee) is likely to date from around 1879 when Berkeley donated his herbarium to Kew. My belief is that Cooke was correct, and this represents a collection by Gunn from Tasmania and the 'Sulphur Springs' is a later slip, perhaps relating to North American secotioid material studied by Massee at the same time (Sulphur Springs Arizona). There is closely numbered material from the USA (Secotium texensis, Berkeley 4416). There might be more information in the Hooker/Gunn correspondence.

Distribution.-Sulphur Springs, Rotorua, N.Z. (Gunn. Type in Herb. Kew), Hobart (L. Rodway, Jan. 1884. Specimens in Herb. Rodway).

Peridium pallid brown, depressed-globose, base deeply excavated, truncate, 1.5 cm. diam., smooth; drying dingy-brown, rugulose. Stipe short, 1-1.5 cm. long, 2-4 mm. thick, slender, equal, or slightly thickened downwards, solid, pallid-brown; columella expanded at the apex. Gleba ferruginous, cellular, cells minutely polygonal, 1 mm. long, dissepiments thin. Spores minutely verruculose, broadly elliptical, pallid ferruginous, one end bluntly rounded, the other apiculate, 6-8 x 4-5 µ (Massee, 7 x 4 µ), epispore thin. Habitat.-Solitary on the ground.

The smooth peridium, short, solid stipe and small, rough spores characterise this species. It is separated from the preceding principally on account of the short stipe and the small size of the spores.
In the original description the spores are stated to be smooth, but I find them to be minutely but distinctly verruculose. This character varies somewhat in individual plants, for, of the two plants in my possession, one exhibits more pronounced markings than does the other.
Lloyd (1905) states that he believes this to be a synonym of S. coaretatum; but examination will show that both in glebal and spore characters it is decidedly different.
I am indebted to Mr. Rodway for the donation of two specimens of this species, now in my herbarium, No. 1203. The question may be raised as to whether the material I have examined is that of S. Gunnii, but I am assured by Mr. Rodway that these specimens are from a collection determined by Massee himself.