228 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



pass from a quiescent to an active state and suddenly liberate a 

 cloud of spores. Among the larger Discomycetes which puff may 

 be mentioned such common species as Aleuria vesiculosa, Galactinia 

 badia, and Peziza aurantia. 



Not only do most large Discomycetes puff but also many of the 

 very small ones. The small ones often occur in large numbers 

 gregariously on wood, etc., and all the fruit-bodies of a single group 

 may puff simultaneously either when the log of wood or other sub- 

 stratum on which they grow is disturbed or when the tin box in 

 which they have been collected is opened subsequently in the 

 laboratory. Dr. Jessie S. Bayhss EUiott has kindly informed me 

 that her record of very small Discomycetes which puff includes the 

 following species : 



Arachnopeziza aurata. Lachnea setosa. 



Ascobolus Crouani.i Mollisia cinerea. 



Chlorosplenium aeruginosum. OrbiHa xanthostigma. 



Dasyscypha virginea. Rhytisma acerinum.^ 

 Helotium scutula. 



Historical Remarks. — The first reference to the phenomenon of 

 puffing appears to be that of MicheU,^ the discoverer of reproduc- 

 tion in fungi,* who in his celebrated Nova Plantarum Genera pub- 

 hshed in 1729 says of Fungoides (= Peziza, etc.) : "All the Fun- 

 goides are provided on the upper surface with very minute round 

 or oval seeds, which are afterwards ejected upwards hke smoke or 



^ The dung upon which this fungus was growing was kept in a large damp- 

 chamber. The hymenial surface of the discs, at first pale, became black with mature 

 asci containing the dark spores. When the door of the damp-chamber was suddenly 

 opened, all the tiny apothecia puffed simultaneously and, in a flash, became pale 

 again (J. S. B. Elliott in litt.). 



2 In the genus Rhytisma the apothecia open by a cleft. In including Rhytisma 

 in the Discomycetes I have followed Boudier (Histoire et Classification des Discomy- 

 cetes d'Europe, Paris, 1907, p. 177). 



3 P. A. Micheli, Nova Plantarum Genera, Florentiae, 1729, p. 204, Plate 86, 

 Fig. 17. 



^ For a discussion of Micheli's discovery of spores not only in the Discomycetes 

 but in fungi generally and for a translation into English of the record of the experi- 

 ments by which he proved that spores are reproductive bodies vide A. H. R. Buller, 

 " Micheli and the Discovery of Reproduction in Fimgi," Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Canada (Presidential Address to Section IV), Series III, Vol. IX, 1915, 

 pp. 1-25, Plates I-IV. 



