324 



DIVISION II. COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 



continues attached round the base of the stipe. In Ph. impudicus the inner wall of 

 the peridium is also rent at its apex, and the gleba is detached from it and rises 

 clear above it. An annular transverse rent in the lower portion of the cone separates 

 the cup-shaped basal portion which remains round the base of the stipe from the upper 

 portion, which is torn into shreds, and the pileus which bears the gleba is thus 

 'separated from the stipe except at its upper margin which adheres firmly to the 

 summit of the stipe. 



The gleba when exposed to the air drops from its stalk as a slimy mass containing 

 the spores in consequence of the deliquescence of its gelatinous tissue. In Phallus 

 caninus the cone and the part of the inner wall of the peridium which covers the 

 gleba go through this process of disorganisation and become indistinguishable before 

 deliquescence. For further particulars and differences among the species the reader is 

 referred to the more elaborate works which will be cited below, and the descriptions in 

 systematic treatises. 



FIG. 155. Clathrus cancellatus. Young 

 compound sporophore in median longitudinal 

 section, m mycelium, r, r sections through the 

 strands of the receptaculum, surrounding the 

 gleba, which is shaded. Further explanation 

 in the text. The figure is diagrammatic 

 after Tulasne's and Berkeley's drawings. 

 Natural size. 



FIG. 156. Clathrus caiictllatus. Mature specimen ; 

 the receptaculum with comparatively narrow fissures has 

 issued from the ruptured peridium. Sketched from a photo- 

 graph by Hornet. Half the natural size. 



Clathrus cancellatus, as we have known since Micheli's time, agrees with Phallus in 

 the character of the gleba and peridium. But the receptaculum which raises the 

 gleba from out of the peridium has the form of a net or lattice-work with large 

 meshes surrounding the outer surface of the gleba. We know from Tulasne J especially 

 that the development of the parts begins here, as in Phallus, with a separation 

 of the uniform tissue of the young compound sporophore into central column, 

 gelatinous layer, and outer wall of the peridium (Fig. 155). Lamelliform processes 

 which anastomose and form a net-work pass from the peridium to the surface of 

 the central column, passing like septa through the gelatinous layer. The lowest of 

 these converge towards the point of insertion of the column or of the whole body 

 and unite there. Then the column becomes further differentiated into the inner 

 wall of the peridium, the gleba, and a roundish axile gelatinous body of a cartilaginous 

 consistence. The latter occupies the entire central portion ; its base rests on the 

 peridium and passes into it, the whole of its surface, with the exception of the point 

 of insertion, being covered by the thick gleba. The lamellae of the trama in the 

 gleba spring on all sides from the central body ; hence it appears in a transverse 



1 Explor. sc. d'Algeric. 



