CHAPTER V.— COMPARATIVE REVIEW. — GASTROMYCETES. 32 1 



Nidularia the shape and opening of the peridium is less regular. As regards 

 Nidularia there is nothing to be added to what has been already said. It may be 

 specially noticed that the surface of the peridiola has the same structure in all cases, 

 at least in the stages of the development which have been examined. The earliest 

 states are not known, but peculiar appendages are found on the surface of the mature 

 peridiola of Crucibulum and Cyathus ; these appendages are produced, like the other 

 parts, from the primitive tissue by the process of differentiation and are not subjected 

 to gelatinisation ; but the history of their development is not yet clearly understood, 

 and some parts of it are matters of controversy (Figs. 150 C, 151 n,f, 152). The mature 

 peridiolum of Crucibulum has an umbilical depression in the middle of the surface which 

 is towards the peridium, and in the depression is a body which in the intact state is 

 smooth and round and projects towards the outside. This body consists of a compact 

 strand of very slender hyphae rolled up and bent into a dense coil, which may therefore 

 be termed the umbilical coil or tuft. The hyphae are surrounded by a colourless 

 mucilage ; and this mucilage and the whole tuft swell when moistened and the hyphae 

 become soft, so that they may be easily drawn out into a filiform strand 3-4 centi- 

 metres in length. The hyphae of the tuft are inserted at one end in the outer layer 

 of the wall of the peridiolum, and where they are most perfect they continue their 

 course closely united and parallel to one another as a smooth and somewhat sinuous 

 strand visible to the naked eye as a fine thread, the funiculus, which is attached to 

 the inner surface of the wall of the peridium. In the young state, before the 

 differentiation, both strand and coil are loosely enveloped in a layer of hyphae which 

 passes through the gelatinous felt like a bag stretched in the direction of the funiculus. 

 As the development is completed the bag becomes gelatinised, but remains of it are 

 still to be seen as a thin covering especially over the coil. The existence of the 

 funiculus is denied in the case of Crucibulum by Brefeld as against Tulasne and 

 Sachs ; but it is certainly often there. It is true that I have been myself unable to 

 find a funiculus in some peridioles, but the coil always showed a small point which 

 answers to it ; it would appear therefore that in such cases it has itself finally suffered 

 gelatinisation. 



In Cyathus under otherwise similar conditions coil and strand and bag are persistent, 

 and thus more complicated phenomena arise, which vary in particular points according 

 to the species. 



In Cyathus striatus, for example, the funiculus when intact has an average length of 

 more than 2 mm. It is nearly cylindrical in shape, and is divided by a deep transverse 

 constriction in the middle into an upper and a lower portion. The lower portion and 

 the slender middle piece are formed of a weft of much-branched and thick-walled but 

 slender hyphae ; this weft in the dry state is brittle, but when moist is tough and 

 tenacious and may be stretched to more than double its length. The upper portion 

 is a bag which reaches from the lower portion to the wall of the peridiolum and passes 

 into it ; in this bag is a filiform strand of slender parallel hyphae about 3 cm. long 

 and disposed therefore in numerous coils inside the bag, which is only 1 mm. in 

 length. The upper end of the strand is attached to the peridiolum, the lower passes 

 into a coil, which, like the umbilical coil of Crucibulum, is enveloped in mucilage and 

 enclosed in the somewhat swollen lower end of the bag. The wall of the bag has 

 essentially the same structure as the lower portion of the funiculus. The whole body 

 is rather brittle in the dry state. It swells by absorption of water and becomes soft 

 and flexible ; the coiled strand may be drawn out to the length mentioned above when 

 the bag is torn up, but not much beyond it; the coil behaves exactly as in Crucibulum ; 

 by a little manipulation its hyphae may be drawn out together till the whole strand 

 reaches to a length of 8 cm. The hyphae of the extensible tissue of the funiculi are 

 slender and usually have their walls thickened till the lumina disappear ; they are 

 divided into long cells resting one on another with their swollen extremities, where 

 they show peculiar clamp-formations. 



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