328 On the Fimdification of the genera Clathms and Phallus. 



some transparency, to wet the substance subjected to examina- 

 tion ; but then the action of the water detaches a cloud of spores, 

 which immediately obscure the field of the microscope. All these 

 circumstances suffice to explain how the observations of botanists 

 have remained so long without result. 



If a Clathrus cancellatus still undeveloped is cut vertically, we 

 remark at first externally, a volva composed of two membranes 

 separated by a thick gelatinous layer; immediately under the volva 

 and applied to its interior surface are seen the branches, almost 

 in a rudimentary state, which are subsequently developed, to form 

 the most brilliant part of the mushroom. The interior of the 

 space circumscribed by this network is occupied by a greenish 

 matter, in the centre of which is a small cavity filled with a co- 

 lourless and gelatinous liquid. 



A microscopical examination is necessary to ascertain the in- 

 timate structure of these various parts of the mushroom. The 

 gelatine of the volva is formed of or intermingled with a great 

 number of anastomosed filaments, sometimes articulated, and 

 terminated by small swellings ; it is divided by a thin membrane 

 into parts completely isolated from one another, and susceptible 

 of separating like the sections of an orange. This arrange- 

 ment makes the volva appear, on the outside, barred into small 

 polygons. The substance of the trellis, of a rose-colour, is solely 

 composed of large, round and perfectly distinct cells : some bo- 

 tanists, deceived by a superficial examination, have imagined 

 that these cells contained a liquid which carried along with it the 

 seeds ; but the branches of the Clathrus are in reality only a sup- 

 port analogous to the stem of the Phallus, and serve solely to 

 prop the greenish substance, the structure of which we proceed 

 to examine. 



This substance, at first fleshy, then mucilaginous, is composed, 

 as in the Lycoperdons, of sinuous cavities, variously anastomosed, 

 separated from one another by a colom-less zone, and strewed with 

 greenish spores, supported, to the number of four to six, on club- 

 shaped basidia. These basidia, scarcely refracting the light, 

 should be observed with attention to be seen distinctly ; they are 

 sometimes furnished with, and at other times deprived of, sterig- 

 mata, and as they do not rise to the same height, the greenish 

 layer of spores which surrounds the hymenial cavities appears to 

 have a certain thickness. 



All this fructiferous mass speedily softens, tears into shreds,by 

 the development of the anastomosing branches to which it ad- 

 heres, and deliquesces. The liquid which carries the seeds dif- 

 fuses a well-known cadaverous odour*. 



* The volva of Clathrus^ on the contrary, exhales a delicious aroma, — a 

 remarkable singularity hitherto unnoticed. 



