CHAPTER V. COMPARATIVE REVIEW. GASTROMYCETES. 



section to be furnished at the circumference with numerous unequal processes and 

 projecting points radiating into the gleba. In the net-work of stripes, where the 

 septa from the outer wall touch on the inner wall, the white (primordial ?) tissue 

 of the latter is more largely developed than in the interspaces. It is in the region 

 of these stripes that the receptaculum originates after the first formation of the 

 gleba. When the compound sporophore is mature the receptaculum expands greatly, 

 and while it remains attached at the point of insertion it rises far above the ruptured 

 peridium (Fig. 1 56). The gleba meanwhile, with its gelatinous support which is separated 

 from the point of insertion, is attached to the uppermost part of its inner surface ; the 

 whole of the gelatinous tissue soon deliquesces, as in Phallus, into a slime which 

 drops off with the spores. The structure of the perfect receptaculum, as appears 

 especially from Corda's accounts, is so like that of the same organ in Phallus, that^ 

 we can hardly doubt that the development of the tissues and the mechanism for 

 expansion are the same in both genera, though we cannot appeal to direct observations. 



We are acquainted with a considerable number of very varied and sometimes strange 

 forms in the group of the Phalloideae, but most of these have been examined only 

 in single mature specimens. A large collection of them are found in Corda 1 . 

 All that is known of them, as regards the shape and structure of the peridium, gleba, 

 and spores, and especially the structure of the receptaculum, agrees in the main points 

 so fully with the descriptions here given of Phallus and Clathrus, that there can 

 be no doubt that the development is alike in all. This view is confirmed by Tulasne's 

 researches into the young compound sporophores of Colus hirudinosus and by Corda's 

 account of Ileodictyon. 



The species chiefly differ from one another in the shape of the receptaculum, which, 

 as in Phallus and Clathrus, always emerges from the walls of the peridium. Some 

 are more like Phallus in this respect, others more like Clathrus ; others again depart 

 considerably from the type of both, as for example Aseroe, which has a star borne 

 on a thick erect stipe with dichotomous rays which are either expanded horizontally or 

 rise obliquely upwards, and has the gleba placed originally in the focus of the rays 

 above the' stipe. From the material in our possession, imperfect as it is owing 

 to the rarity or perishable nature of most extra-European species, we may arrange 

 the majority at least of the forms in a gently graduated series according to their 

 affinities, with Clathrus (Fig. 156) at one end and Phallus (Fig. 153), Lysurus and 

 similar forms at the other. Fries 2 has already drawn attention to this connection. 

 Colus hirudinosus (Fig. 157) agrees very nearly with Clathrus cancellatus in its 

 development. But while in the latter the base of the receptaculum consists only 

 of a few short stripes which converge into a network and are connected at the extreme 

 base, it is developed in Colus into a hollow stipe, open above and below, in form 

 cylindrical-conical and nearly a third of the entire length of the whole sporophore. 

 The stipe divides above into from six to eight riband-like arms, which ascend 

 like the meridians of longitude on a globe and unite their upper extremities into 

 a small terminal plate which is pierced with holes like a coarse sieve. Alto- 

 gether therefore it forms a net-work, and the position of the gleba in it is the 

 same as in Clathrus, only the shape of the net is different and much more regular. 

 If the meridian arms were set free, and did not end in the plate above, we should 

 have the same plan as in Aseroe (Fig. 158) and in Calathiscus with some modi- 

 fication, where the gleba is borne on the extremity of the stipe, which is split up into 

 diverging arms. 



Lastly, Aserophallus 3 (Fig. 159) has a comparatively long stipe, which divides 

 beneath the round gleba at its apex into four short arms which embrace it. Here 

 is at once a very near approach to the shape of Phallus, especially if we frame an idea 



1 Icones, V, VI. - Summa veget. Scancl. 434. 



3 Montagne et Leprieur in Ann. d. sc. nat. ser. 3, IV (1844). 



