HELIOTROPISM OF ASCI IN DISCOMYCETES 279 



The fruit-bodies of Ciliaria scutellata are usually gregarious, 

 sessile, almost closed and subglobose at first, then expanded and 

 plane, fixed by a central point, 3-10 mm. varying up to 15 mm. in 

 diameter, and 1-2 mm. thick. The upper surface of the disc is 

 deep carmine or almost vermilion but sometimes pallid, while the 

 lower surface is yellowish-red or brownish. The outer covering of 

 the fruit-body is furnished with large brown thick-walled septate 

 hairs (Fig. 134), 300-600 y. long ^ and 15-20 [jl wide, the longest and 

 last developed ^ ones being at the periphery. At first, when the 

 fruit-body is small and almost spherical, the marginal hairs are 

 turned centripetally over the top of the hymenium ; but, later, as 



Fig. 133. — Ciliarin scutellata (= Lachnen scutellata). Fruit-bodies 

 on rotting wood. Part of Fig. 433 in M. E. Hard's The Mushroom, 

 Edible and Otherwise, published at Columbus, Oliio, U.S.A., 1908. 



the fruit-body expands and flattens, they turn outwards centri- 

 fugally. Thus the mature fruit-body, when seen from above, has 

 the appearance of a carmine disc fringed with projecting brown- 

 black hairs. It was this fringe of dark hairs, reminding one of 

 eye-lashes, that suggested to Quelet the name of the genus, Ciliaria, 

 to which Boudier has transferred the species under discussion. The 

 flesh or trama of the fruit-body consists of an upper layer of fine 

 interwoven hyphae and of a lower layer of pseudoparenchyma. 

 The hymenium, made up of asci and numerous paraphyses, is 

 about 0-3 mm. thick. The asci (Fig. 135) are fairly large, 



^ J. Lagarde in his " Contribution a I'etude des Discomycetes charnus " {Ann. 

 Myc, Jahrg. IV, 1906, pp. 207-208), in giving details of the anatomical structure of 

 Ciliaria scutellata, states that the length of the liairs varies from 150 to 300 (jl and 

 that those at the margin may attain 700 [x. 



2 Vide W. H. Brown, " The Development of the Ascocarp of LachTiea scutellata,'' 

 The Botanical Gazette, Vol. LII, 1911, p. 276. 



