156 Rev. M. J. Berkeley on the fructification 



to consist of pellucid obtuse cells placed parallel to each other 

 like the pile of velvety exactly as in the young hymenium of 

 an Agaric or Boletus, but without any trace of those processes 

 which have been considered by some authors as male organs, 

 Occasionally one or two filaments cross from one wall to the 

 other, and once I have seen these anastomose. At a more 

 advanced stage of growth four little spicules are developed at 

 the tips of the sporophores, all of which, as far as I have been 

 able to observe, are fertile and of equal height*, and on each 

 of these spicules a globose spore is seated. It is clear that we 

 have here a structure identical with that of true Hymenomy- 

 cetes, a circumstance which accords well with the fleshy habit 

 and mode of growth. 



There is some difficulty in ascertaining the exact structure 

 of the species just noticed, as the fruit-bearing cells or sporo- 

 phores are very small, and when the spicules are developed 

 the substance becomes so flaccid that it is difficult to cut a 

 proper slice even with the sharpest lancet. I have however 

 satisfied myself as to the true structure by repeated observa- 

 tions. But should any difficulty arise in verifying it in the 

 species in question, there will be none in doing so in Lyco- 

 perdon giganteum, Batsch, which more properly belongs to the 

 genus Bovista. 



In this species the fructifying mass consists of the same 

 sinuous cavities, which are however smaller, so that the sub- 

 stance is more compact, and I have not seen them traversed 

 by any filaments. In an early stage of growth, the surface of 

 the hymenium, that is of the walls of the cavities, consists of 

 short threads composed of two or three articulations which 

 are slightly constricted at the joints, from which, especially 

 from the last, spring short branchlets often consisting of a 

 single cell. Sometimes two or more branchlets spring from 

 the same point. Occasionally the threads are constricted 

 without any dissepiments. The terminal articulations are ob- 

 tuse and soon swell very much, so as greatly to exceed in dia- 



* M. Klotzsch figures however in his Hymenangium virens the sporophores 

 as scattered and projecting beyond the surface of the hymenium, and he re- 

 presents also what he calls anthers. This latter circumstance is confirmed 

 by Corda inthe Algemeine Botan. Zeitung, though he diliers from M. Klotzsch 

 as to their form. 



