3° 



DIVISION I. — GENERAL MORPIIOLOGV. 



Section VIII. The name sclerotium lias been given to certain thick tuber-like 

 bodies formed on the primary filamentous mycelium which proceeds from the ger- 

 minating spore ; these, which are storehouses of reserve-material, become detached 

 from the mycelium when their development is complete, usually remain dormant 

 for a considerable time, and ultimately expend their reserve-material in the production 

 of shoots which develope into sporophores. 



The sclerotia are generally exposed on the surface of the substratum, or they are 

 formed on the walls of broad fissures in it or sometimes even in the close tissues of 

 phanerogamous plants. 



Their form and average size vary much according to the species, the latter being 

 dependent also on the quantity and quality of the food supplied to them. The 

 sclerotia for example of Typhula variabilis are small spheres usually of the size 

 of a mustard-seed, those of Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum differ extremely in shape and 

 may be smaller than a pea or as large as a hazel-nut, or form shapeless cakes some- 

 times an inch in breadth ; the sclerotia of species of Claviceps are horn-shaped blunt 

 triangular bodies which may be more than an inch long and some millimetres in 

 thickness, or scarcely i cm. in length and i mm. in breadth, according to the species 

 and the nutrition. 



The structure of these bodies in their mature resting state is, in some points of 

 chief importance, the same in all the species. They consist chiefly of a uniform 

 compact tissue, the medulla, which, with a single exception noticed below in paragraph 

 d, is surrounded by an outer layer of peculiar structure forming the rind or outer coat. 

 Both parts contain comparatively little water. The medulla is a close weft of hyphae 

 or a pseudo-parenchyma, the elements of which are pale-coloured or colourless and 

 contain a large quantity of reserve food-material ; this in some cases takes the form of 

 a great thickening along with gelatinisation of the membranes of the cells, the lumina 

 of which are narrow and contain little solid matter, as in species of Sclerotinia and in 

 Typhula gyrans, &c, or their cell-w r alls continue thin and the food-material is in the 

 form of large accumulations of fatty matters, as in Claviceps, or of fine-grained proto- 

 plasmic substances, as in Coprinus stercorarius and others. Exact investigation of 

 the reserve material has been made only in the case of the sclerotia of Claviceps 1 . 

 The rind is composed of one or more layers of cells which have their membranes 

 wholly or partially sclerosed and dark-coloured, and are poor in solid contents. 



Within the limits of this general structure, which is common to these bodies, 

 there are special structural arrangements which vary much in the different species. 

 Outward likeness is not always accompanied by agreement in their internal 

 structure, which may also be like or very unlike in nearly related species. 



The following details, most of which appeared in the first edition of this work, will 

 illustrate these points. 



a. The sclerotia of the Sclerotinia-Pezizeae (Peziza tuberosa, P. Sclerotiorum, 

 P. Fuckeliana, P. Candolleana, P. ciborioides, P. baccarum, &c.) have a thin, black, 

 smooth or rough rind, and a medulla which in the dry state is of a white or whitish 

 colour. The latter is a firm gelatinous tissue of cartilaginous texture without any 



Fluckiger, Pharmacognosie d. Pflanzenreichs ; see before on page 17. 



