410 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



and, owing to its mucilage, is slippery and difficult to hold in place 

 for making hand-sections. 



The apophysis or under part of the head is formed of hyphae 

 which arise from the core of the oblate-spheroidal part of the head. 

 These hyphae (Fig. 205, C,/) are extended outwards and downwards, 

 so that at first they avoid the contracted upper part of the stalk, 

 and then inwards and downwards so that finally many of them 

 come to rest against the stalk, with the result that an annular air- 

 space is formed between the upper part of the stalk and the apophysis 

 by which it is surrounded (Figs. 212, D, p. 419, and 205, C, e). The 



Fig. 206. — Omphalia flavida. Vertical section through pilaus and upper 

 part of the stipe of a large expanded fruit-body. The fruit-body was 

 removed from a Bryophyllum leaf which hafl been inoculated witli 

 gemmae 38 days previously. Note the umbilicate pileus, the thin 

 pileus-flesh, the decurrent gills, and the solid stipe. The pileus was 

 6-7 mm. in diameter. Drawn by A. H. R. Buller and Ruth Macrae. 

 Magnification, about 15. 



outer hyphae of the apophysis end in outwardly curved, swollen, 

 almost hyaline cells, each of which is extended into a number of 

 short, slender, simple or bifurcated projections (Fig. 205, C, g). 



From the above description it will be seen that the stilbum-hody 

 produces spores neither externally nor internally, i.e. it is completely 

 non-sporogenous. 



The Omphalia flavida Sporophore.— The external appearance of 

 the sporophore of Omphalia flavida, which represents the perfect 

 stage of the fungus and produces and liberates an abundance of 

 basidiospores, is shown in Figs. 203, 204, and 213 (pp. 404, 405, and 

 424). It was first observed and described in 1914 by Maublanc and 

 Rangel.i Their diagnosis, translated from the Latin, is as follows. 

 1 A. Maublanc et E. Rangel, he. cit., p. 46. 



