230 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



of smoke through the cracks of the cortex which was broken into 

 irregular shield-hke pieces." Tulasne,i in 1865, remarked that from 

 the ascophorous hymenium of Rhytisma acerinum, when it has 

 dehisced in spring, " the endospores escape hke smoke." 



In 1817, Kunze and Schmidt ^ remarked that they had observed 

 puffing from the apothecia of two very small Discomycetes, by them 

 included in the genus Phacidium but now regarded as species of 

 Coccomyces. In their description of Phacidium trigonum ( = Coc- 

 co7nyces trigonus) they say : "When in damp weather the disc is 

 fully exposed, there follows after the least touch, just as in P. 

 coronatum, the ejection of the spores in the form of a fine grey-green 

 powder." 



Desmazieres,^ in 1845, observed puffing in Helvella ephippium 

 Lev. and stated that the vapour of the seeds was discharged into the 

 air with a faint report. Tulasne * suggested that Desmazieres had 

 " been misled. by some error " in supposing that he had heard his 

 Helvella puff ; but, as we shall see in Chapter III, Desmazieres's 

 observation has been supported by subsequent investigations. 



De Bary,^ in the first edition of his well-known text-book of 

 mycology pubUshed in 1866, treated of puffing in the Discomycetes 

 in a modern manner. He showed : that the asci are turgid cells ; 

 that, when puffing of a fruit-body takes place, a large number of 

 the asci open apically at one and the same moment ; and that the 

 spores of each ascus are shot up into the air owing to the contraction 

 of the elastic ascus wall. 



In 1909, I ^ showed that, if a section of a ripe hymenium of 

 Aleuria vesiculosa is first submerged in water, the subsequent 

 apphcation to it of solutions of sodium chloride, potassium nitrate, 

 grape sugar, or glycerine, all of which withdraw water from the cell- 

 sap of the asci, does not cause the asci to explode, but that the asci 



^ L.-R. and C. Tulasne, loc. cit., Vol. Ill, 1865, p. 117 (Eng. Trans., p. 109). 



2 G. Kunze und J. C. Schmidt, Mykologische Hefte, Leipzig, 1871, p. 41. 



^ J. B. H. J. Desmazieres, Plant, crypt. France, 2nd ed., fasc. XIX, 18-45, No. 914. 

 Cited from Tulasne. 



* L.-R. and C. Tulasne, loc. cit., p. 42 (Eng. Trans., p. 44). 



^ A. de Bary, Morphologic und Physiologic der Pilze, Flechten, und Myxomyceten, 

 Leipzig, 1866, pp. 141-143. 



« These Researches, Vol. I, 1909, pp. 238-241, 268. 



