Phylum Inophyta [ 155 



to an unsatisfactory degree, and to some of which the suspicion of artificiality con- 

 tinued to attach. 



Dodge, translating Gaumann (1928), took account of the course of development 

 of the fruits in rearranging those families whose fruits are characteristically pro- 

 duced underground. The roll of families which appear tenable is as follows. 



A. Fruits typically formed underground. 



Family 1. Rhizopogonacea [Rhizopogonaceae] Dodge in Gaumann Comp. Morph. 

 Fungi 469 (1928). 



Family 2. Sclerodermea [Sclerodermei] Winter in Rabenhorst Kryptog.-Fl. 

 Deutschland 1, Abt. 1: 865 (1884). Family Sclerodermataceae Fischer in Engler 

 and Prantl Nat. Pflanzenfam. I Teil, Abt. 1**: 334 (1900). 



Family 3. Hydnangiacea [Hydnangiaceae] Dodge in Gaumann op. cit. 485. 



Family 4. Hymenogastrea [Hymenogastrei] Winter in Rabenhorst op. cit. 865. 

 Family Hymenogastraccae de Toni in Saccardo Sylloge 7: 154 (1888). 



Family 5. Hysterangiacea [Hysterangiaceae] Fischer in Engler and Prantl op. cit. 

 304. 



B. Fruits appearing on the surface of the ground. 



Family 6. Lycoperdacea [Lycoperdaceae] Cohn in Hedwigia 11: 17 ( 1872) . These 

 are the common puffballs, Lycoperdon, Bovista, Calvatia, Lycogalopsis, etc. The con- 

 tents of the more or less globular fruits become disorganized, leaving a mass of spores 

 m.ixed with fibers (modified hyphae constituting a capillitium), enclosed in one or 

 more continuous layers of tissue (peridia) which open usually through one stellate 

 pore at the summit. Geaster has a double peridium. The outer peridium becomes 

 split by meridional clefts from the apex nearly to the base, and the lobes curl back 

 in damp weather, exposing the inner peridium with its terminal pore. The appearance 

 of the fruit in the damp condition explains the common name, earth star, and the 

 scentific name of the same meaning. 



Family 7. Tulostomea [Tulostomei] Winter in Rabenhorst op. cit. 866. Family 

 Tulostomataceae Fischer in Engler and Prantl op. cit. 342. Tulostoma produces at 

 ground level puffball-like fruits which are found to stand upon buried stalks some 

 centimeters long. The basidia bear the spores scattered along the sides instead of in 

 a crown at the summit. This is probably a minor deviation from the condition in 

 ordinary puffballs, and not a token of independent origin. 



Family 8. Nidulariea [Nidulariei] Winter in Rabenhorst 1. c. Family Nidulariaceae 

 de Toni in Saccardo Sylloge 7: 28 (1888). The bird's nest fungi, Nidularia, Cyathus, 

 etc., with small fruits growing on sticks or earth, the outer peridium opening and 

 exposing several peridioles. 



Family 9. Sphaerobolacea [Sphaerobolaceae] Fischer in Engler and Prantl op. 

 cit. 346. Sphaerobolus, a saprophyte on wood, produces minute puffball-like fruits 

 which discharge mechanically a globular mass of spores. 



Family 10. Clathracea [Clathraceae] Fischer in Engler and Prantl op. cit. 280. 

 Closely related and transitional to the following family. 



Family 11. Phalloidea [Phalloidei] Winter in Rabenhorst 1. c. Family Phallaceae 

 Fischer in Engler and Prantl op. cit. 289. The stinkhorns. Phallus, Dictyophora, 

 Mutinus, etc. These organisms produce highly specialized fruits. A fruit is first seen 

 as a white globe, as large as a marble or a golf-ball, at ground level. It has a leathery 

 peridium containing certain structures imbedded in gelatinous matter: there is a 

 firm thimble-shaped structure upon whose surface the basidia develop; below or 

 within this there is a body of the form of a hollow cylinder of spongy structure. When 



