312 DIVISION II. COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 



persistent. This separation of the peridiola in the opened bowl-shaped or cup-shaped 

 wall of the peridium is the distinguishing mark of the Nidularieae. Each peridiolum 

 is lined with a single hymenial layer which almost entirely fills the inner cavity ; 

 the basidia disappear after abscision of their spores, which are usually four in 

 number. 



4. The Phalloideae, according to our present knowledge, have a comparatively 

 small gleba within a very massive peridial wall which is characterised by a gelatinous 

 middle layer. The structure of the gleba is, as in the Hymenogastreae, up to the 

 formation of the spores ; it has a great number of narrow chambers, and (except 

 perhaps in Ileodictyon ?) is traversed more or less completely by a thick central column, 

 from which the walls of the chambers radiate. Its entire tissue, with the exception of 

 the column, is disorganised when the small narrowly cylindrical spores are ripe, and 

 becomes a perfectly structureless mass of jelly which dissipates in water and, like the 

 spores, is of a dark-green colour. As the gleba developes a certain portion of the 

 peridial wall is transformed into a receplaculum in the narrower sense, which remains 

 at first in connection with the gleba, but becomes suddenly and greatly elongated at 

 maturity and carries up the gleba above the wall of the peridium which has opened 

 at the apex, and there allows it to deliquesce. 



The conformation of the receptaculum is unusually different in the extreme cases. 

 One extreme is represented by Clathrus cancellatus and Ileodictyon. Here it is 

 formed in the inner layer of the peridial wall surrounding the gleba as a large hollow 

 body pierced so as to form a net-work or lattice-work. The gleba with the central 

 column which shares the gelatinous disorganisation of the gleba adheres to the 

 receptaculum at its final elongation and then breaks up and drops off. The other 

 extreme appears in Phallus and the allied forms ; in these the receptaculum is a simple 

 fusiform body formed in the middle of the central column, which ruptures the ripening 

 gleba above its apex so as to form a conical cap and finally carries it up, in 

 consequence of its own elongation, above the ruptured apex of the peridium. The 

 two extremes are connected by a series of intermediate forms, the important points in 

 which are occupied by Clathrus (Colus) hirudinosus 1 , Aseroe 2 , Calathiscus 3 , and 

 Aserophallus*. 



Phallus and its nearest allies are evidently the furthest removed from the rest 

 of the Gastromycetes. Comparison of early states, on the other hand, show an 

 unmistakeable and close agreement and affinity between forms such as Clathrus and 

 Ileodictyon on one side and Geaster, a genus of the Lycoperdaceae, on the other. A 

 nearer connection seems to be established through the intermediate genus Mitremyces, 

 but this requires further proof. 



SECTION XC. There are many undesirable lacunae in the history of the 

 development of the compound sporophores of the above four groups, chiefly owing 

 to the difficulty in procuring them in their early states. There is more than one cause 

 of this difficulty ; most species pass the first period of their existence beneath the 



1 Tulasne, Explor. sc. d'Algerie, Fungi, p. 435, t. 23, ff. 9-32. 

 * See Corda, Icon. fung. VI. 



3 Montagne in Ann. d. sc. nat. ser. 2, XVI. 



4 Montagne et Leprieur, in Ann. d. sc. nat. ser. 3, IV (1844). See also Corda, Icon. Fung. VI. 



