THE PERENNIAL PSEUDORHIZA 389 



of pseudorhizae might have an appearance like that found for the 

 fruit-body cluster shown in Fig. 195. It is possible that the com- 

 pound pseudorhiza under favourable conditions might function 

 for even one or more further years. 



When in the first year of fruiting, instead of one fruit-body, 

 several fruit-bodies are produced, several pseudorhizae persist 

 through the winter ; and in the next summer several or all of these 

 pseudorhizae produce new fruit-bodies ; and so on from year to 

 year (Fig. 196). If, in such a case, the buried root is only about 

 two inches below the siu-face of the ground, the pseudorhizae are 

 all very short ; and there may be formed, in the course of several years, 

 a black agglomeration of very numerous more or less laterally fused 

 pseudorhizae, which may be more or less rounded peripherally and 

 sclerotioid in general appearance. Such, doubtless, was the origin 

 of the massive structure shown in Fig. 192 (p. 384). Its true nature 

 was made out from vertical and transverse sections, and by com- 

 parison with a series of persistent pseudorhizae which led by 

 gi'adations to the simplest and most unmistakable forms. 



Lateral Grafting. — In an old compound pseudorhiza, one often 

 finds that the persistent pseudorliizae of any one year have become 

 irregular in outline, more or less tuberculate, and fused together 

 laterally. This natural lateral grafting of pseudorhizae which 

 were originally distinct appears to be due to a certain amount of 

 renewed growth taking place in summers subsequent to the one 

 in w^hich the pseudorhizae were originally developed. It was 

 doubtless such renewed growth and fusion of many scores of 



Fig. 194. — VoUybia fasipes. A diagrammatic representation of the development of 

 a compound pseudorhiza during a series of years. A, a fruit-body in the 

 summer of the first year ; r, a Beecli root being rotted by the myceUum ; s, 

 the general surface of the leaf-mould ; p, tlie simple pseudorhiza passing into a, 

 tlie aerial stipe-shaft. B, the same fruit-body in the ensuing winter : the 

 pseudorhiza alone is persistent. C, summer of the second year : the pseudo- 

 rhiza has given rise to several new fruit-bodies, each of which has its own 

 pseudorliiza. D, winter condition of C : the persistent pseudorhiza is now com- 

 pound. E, summer of tlie third year : the compound pseudorhiza has given 

 rise to several new fruit-bodies, each of which again has its own pseudorhiza. 

 F, winter condition of E : the persistent pseudorhiza is now made up of the 

 pseudorhizae of three successive generations of fruit-bodies. G, summer of 

 the fourth year : new fruit-bodies are again being produced, but only from one 

 part of the top of the pseudorliiza ; tlie numbers 1, 2, and 3 indicate the 

 successive annual increments of growth of the compound pseudorhiza c. 

 About two-thirds natural size. 



