HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



225 



which in the former is as long as, or longer than, 

 the sporangium, in the latter, much shorter. In C. 

 mimilum, the lid is coloured. Cyathits vcrnicosus, 

 bird's-nest fungus, so called because it resembles 

 a bird's nest containing eggs, is not uncommon on 

 the ground, especially in damp places. Its shape is 

 more like that of a bell, with the opening upwards. 

 Dull lead colour inside, yellowish without. This is 

 the peridium. The small, egg-like bodies contained 

 in this peridium are not the spores or seeds, but 

 sporangia. Each is fixed to the inside of the cup by 

 a long, slender cord. 



These sporangia are hollow, and from the interior 

 spring branched threads or basidia which give origin 

 to spores seated on spicules. C. striatus, outside 

 downy, brownish, inside lead colour, sporangia more 

 or less three-sided. SpJnn-obohts stcllatits is very 

 frequent in conservatories, on cocoa-nut fibre, spent 

 tan, &c, it also grows on sawdust and dead twigs ; 

 the plants are nearly round at first, yellowish, and 

 about the size of a turnip seed. The peridium con- 

 sists of two coats, and when mature the outer cover- 

 ing ruptures in a stellate manner, the inner coat at 

 the same time springs through the opening elastically 

 and projects the single enclosed sporangium to a 

 considerable distance. Tremella mesentcrica is the 

 showy, golden-yellow, gelatinous fungus, common 

 on rotten branches, and especially so on furze stems ; 

 a thin slice under the microscope reveals an intricate 

 mass of slender branched threads enveloped in a 

 structureless, jelly-like substance, towards the out- 

 side these threads are swollen into large round or 

 obovate globules containing yellow granules ; from 

 each of these globules grow at different periods three 

 or four pointed tubes or spicules, each in turn sur- 

 mounted by a spherical spore. T. albida of a dirty 

 white, sometimes with a tinge of yellow, is equally 

 common on fallen branches in woods. 



Small yellow or orange gelatinous specks are 

 usually to be met with on fir-branches or rails, these 

 belong to an allied genus, Dacrymyces, distinguished 

 by the clavate or club-shaped globules or basidia, 

 from which the spicules grow, and by the sausage- 

 shaped curved spores. D. deliquescens has the spores 

 triseptate, while in D. stellatus there are always more 

 than three septa, and the colour is deep orange. 

 Excluding the moulds, the greater number of small 

 ascigerous fungi present one of the two following 

 types of structure. First, those in which the hymen- 

 ium during some period is exposed. The genus 

 Peziza may be considered as typical of this division, 

 the receptacle is usually fleshy and more or less cup- 

 shaped, and when young the margin is incurved, so 

 that the plants are at first nearly globular in form ; 

 the outside of the cup varies much, it may be smooth, 

 v, arted, pubescent, or villous : looking under a half- 

 inch power like a miniature sea-urchin, the margin 

 of the cup is also frequently furnished with a fringe 

 of hairs or teeth. When the margin unfolds, the 



hymenium, which occupies the inside of the cup, 

 is exposed, and is frequently very brilliantly coloured, 

 the asci are elongated cells, usually clavate or cylin- 

 drical and are closely packed side by side, their 

 upper and free ends forming the surface of the inside 

 of the cup. That the sporidia when mature escaped 

 from the ascus through an opening at the apex, has 

 been known for some time, but it has recently been 



Fig. 138. — Group of some of our Smaller Fungi : — No. 6, Cyathus 

 vernicosits (twice natural size) ; 7, Splurrobohis stellatus 

 (natural size) ; 8, Same enlarged, showing the mode of dehis- 

 cence and ejection of the sporangium; 9, Spore of Trichia 

 chrysospcrvia (very much magnified); 10, Arcyria cinerca 

 (magnified) ; it, The two kinds of threads found in the capil- 

 litium (highly magnified) ; 12, Peziza stercorea (natural size) ; 

 13, Section of same (magnified) ; 14, Ascus containing eight 

 sporidia, two paraphyses accompany the ascus (highly magni- 

 fied) ; 15, Hair from margin of P. stercorca (magnified) ; 

 16, Peziza virginca .natural size) ; 17, Same enlarged. 



pointed out by Boudier that there are two modes of 

 dehiscence : a little lid or operculum of definite form 

 is elevated at the apex of the ascus when mature, or 

 the sporidia escape through an opening, the edges of 

 which are elevated and frequently torn, but it never 

 assumes the appearance of an operculum. 



As to how the sporidia escape through the opening 

 in the ascus has been the subject of much contro- 

 versy. Dr. Cooke's explanation is as follows : "The 



