Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Pileati. 



Plate LXXXVI. 



CLATHRUS CANCELLATUS, MMeu. 



Latticed Clathrus. 

 Clathkace^ (Corda.) 



Gen. Char. Outer peridium, manifold, rarely simple, split into lacinise or irregularly opened, base seldom fur- 

 nished with a columella. Internal peridium fleshy, composed of latticed branches joined at the apex, fructiferous 

 within. The pulp viscid, sporidiferous, at length diffluent. Spores simple. 



Spec. Char. Clathrus cancellatus. Peridium double ; outer peridium volva-like globose membranaceous^ 

 reticidato-plicate within, split into laciuias. Internal peridium sessile, fleshy, latticed by branches anastomosing 

 obliquely ; without reddish, very smooth ; within paler, rugose, at first including mere gelatine, which becomes a 

 cinereous sporidiferous mass, which on the bursting of the fungus from its Volva-like outer covering immediately 

 begins to deliquesce, and flows away in a most feetid liquor, leaviug the inner side of the branches naked and reti- 

 culated, the outer surface pitted from collapse. Spores simple. Probably poisonous. 



Clathrus canceUatus, Micheli, Bidliard, Fries, Berk. (MSS.) 



Hai. South of Europe ; in England only fouud by Dr. Bromfield in the isle of Wight and by Mrs. Grifliths at 

 Torquay. August, 1848. 



We are indebted to IMrs. Griffiths for some sketches of this very curious fungus, which although long 

 known and not uncommon in France and Italy was all but a stranger on EngUsh gi-ound. " It appeared 

 in Mrs. Travers' garden, at Torquay, in rich reddish earth, formerly a fir plantation ; when Mrs. Travers 

 gathered the fungus it was in a ball, and before she could bring it into the house it had burst up suddenly 

 to its height. The scarlet part had a most vivid colour tiU the darker part decomposed. I was so very 



much annoyed with the stench I could not take more pains with the drawing The outside was pitted ; 



in the winter state the inside is greenish, with network of whitish veins ; when split it looks like a walnut 

 with the husk on ; the ball inside was full of colourless jelly." (Mrs. Griffiths.) We have given the lady's 

 verbal sketch as well as that of her pencil, because an original description is always more graphic than 

 any modification of it. 



The Clathrus is allied to the genus Phalloidea ; the common Vliallus impitdicus, if dug up in winter, is 

 an elastic ball like a shell-less egg ; with a very long, nearly simple root ; this ball is full of glair or mucilage 

 in which the rudiments of the future plant are enveloped, and may be traced, precisely as in the Clathrus ; 

 in this state there is neither scent nor flavour developed. In summer, the membranous sac bursts, by the 



