I 



Si 



everybody that they need no very extended description. If a com- 

 mon puff-ball {Lycoperdon) be broken open at an early stage of its 

 growth, the internal fleshy substance will be found to be firm and of 

 a creamy whiteness. An examination of a very thin section of this 

 whitish substance under a high power of the microscope will show that 

 it is composed of closely compacted anastomosing threads, with here 

 and there an irregular sinuous cavity lined with closely crowded 

 club-shaped bodies (basidia) each tipped with from four to six spicules, 

 and each spicule bearing at its apex a globular spore. When the 

 spores are fully matured they become brownish and free, the hyme- 

 nium is resolved into dry threads, and both together form a pulveru- 

 lent mass. Next, the peridium bursts at the apex ; and it then re- 

 quires but the least touch from some passing animal, or even a slight 

 pressure of the wind on the thin peridium to set free, in a single 

 *' puff," millions of the microscopic spores, which are thus dissemi- 

 nated far and wide. All this is very simple. Another order of the 

 family is that of the Phalloidei^ which, from the form and odor of a 

 well-known species, is sometimes designated, with more truth than 

 elegance, the "stink -horn " tribe. Here we have a structure analo- 

 gous to that found in some of the puff-balls, but with a few import- 

 ant variations. In these fungi the volva or peridium is composed of 

 three coats: an outer, thick white membrane; an inner, thin white 

 membrane, and, between the two, a thick gelatinous layer. The 

 hymenium or spore-bearing surface, enclosed within the inner mem- 

 brane, is similar in structure to that of the puff-balls, and consists of 

 a dense mass of threads presenting sinuous cavities lined with spore- 

 bearing basidia. In these plants, however, the hymenium, instead of 

 drying up into a dusty mixture of spores and threads, becomes moist, 

 and then deliquescent ; and, at maturity, drips away in a thick tena- 

 cious mucilage. It is evident, therefore, that were no method pro- 

 vided for their dispersion, the spores would simply flow down into 

 the lower cavity of the volva, and there dry up into a hard mass ; and 

 that the plant would not only become local, but, in the struggle for 

 existence constantly taking place in the organic world, would run 

 the risk of extermination. Nature, however, has made a provision 

 against such a calamity. On examining a section of the volva of one 

 of the phalloids, we find that, according to the genus, the hymenial 

 substance either surrounds the upper and external portion of astern ; 

 or is enclosed in a network at the top of a stem (January Bulletin, 

 PI. I, Fig. 3); or is enclosed within stellate rays at the apex of a 

 stem. In all cases, this stem is composed of large pits or cells, which, 

 while the plant is still enclosed in the volva are very strongly com- 

 pressed (See same Figure); but as the plant goes on maturing these 

 cells acquire a rounder or more elongated form (Fig. 5, same plate)^ 

 till at length their upward tendency is so strong that the volva is 

 ruptured (sometimes with a loud report) and the hymenium is lifted 

 to a height of several inches in the air. In the fungi of this order 

 which have no stems (as in Clathrus) the netw^ork of the receptacle 

 has the same cellular structure, and has precisely the same effect in 

 bursting the volva and lifting the sporiferous mass into the air. One 

 step is thus taken towards spore dispersion, but this is not enoughj 



