410 PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY 
Division B.—GASTEROMYCETES 
(Hymenium inclosed) 
OrpDER 1.—LycopEeRDALESs, or puff ball alliance. This 
order includes a number of interesting parasites and saprophytes, 
the most common of which are the earth stars belonging to the 
genus Geaster and the puft balls, the most common form being 
Lycoperdon. In these, the fruiting sporophore consists for the 
most part of a shell-like covering called the peridium, composed 
Fic. 305.—Bird’s Nest Fungus (Crucibulum). Note the open sporophores appear- 
ing like nests with eggs. The “eggs”’ are the peridiola or special bodies in which 
the basidiospores are produced. (Mottier.) 
of an outer layer or exoperidium and an inner layer of endoperidium. 
The peridium in the unripe condition of the sporophore covers 
a mass of soft cellular tissue called the gleba. Upon the ripening 
of this mass, the interior is seen to be divided into many-branched 
compartments that are separated from each other by walls 
made up of branched hyphez. These walls are lined with a 
hymenium composed of many basidia, each of which constricts 
off usually four basidiospores. The earth stars differ from the 
puff balls in possessing an outer wall or exoperidium which 
splits in star-shaped fashion. 
OrpDER 2.—Niwu aries, the nest fungi. A group of 
Gasteromycetes whose sporophores are crucible- or crater-like. 
SE ae a. 
