310 DIVISION II. — COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 



Corda ; or it is composed of a tough gelatinous felt, as in Hysterangium and 

 IMelanogaster. 



The peridia show no marked peculiarities of structure, having a close weft like 

 that of the walls of the chambers formed of hyphae which run chiefly in the direction 

 of the surface. They decay after the spores have ripened and while the gleba is 

 gradually becoming disintegrated. 



The Secotieae, or at least the genus Secotiurn and Cauloglossum trans- 

 versarium, are Ilymenogastreae in structure with a stipe and a thick central column 

 which traverses the entire peridium up to the apex in the line of prolongation of the 

 stipe (Fig. 144). 



2. The young compound sporophores of the Lycoperdaceae, with whose 

 development we have any acquaintance (Lycoperdon, Bovista, Geaster), display 

 the structure of the Hymenogastreae in all important points up to the time of the 

 formation of spores, only the young peridium is developed on a much larger scale. 

 One point of difference makes its appearance at an early period ; two kinds of hyphae 

 are formed in the trama when still young : slender delicate segmented hyphae rich 

 in protoplasm, which make up the chief mass of the trama and by their branches form 



Fig. 143. Tulostoma mammosum. Fig. 144. Secotiurn erythrocephalum , 



1 r. Basidia with fully formed spores Tul. Sporophore divided in half, of 



highly magnified. After Schruter. the natural size. After Tulasne. 



the constituents of the hymenium ; and stouter tubes usually non-septate, which are 

 members or branches of the same hyphae as the delicate elements and run for the 

 most part in the trama, but may also, as in Lycoperdon and Bovista, send branches 

 transversely through the chambers from one wall to the wall opposite. When the 

 spores begin to ripen the delicate hyphae and the elements of the hymenium become 

 dissolved with copious effusion of water and entirely disappear. The thick tubes on 

 the contrary persist and grow, and acquire a shape and structure which vary in the 

 different genera and species, and their membranes become thickened and usually 

 assume a lively colour, yellow passing into brown. Together they form in 

 the compound sporophore, which ultimately becomes dry by the evaporation of 

 the water produced in it, a woolly mass of loose texture, the captllttium, the 

 interspaces of which are filled with large quantities of a dry powder, the ripe 

 spores. 



I include here under the name Lycoperdaceae all the species in which the 

 structure of the ripe gleba points to the above course of development, excepting only 

 for the present the genus Tulostoma, which will be considered below. They are 



