FUNGI. 225 



In this gluten the minute spores are immersed. As 

 long ago as the seventeenth century it had been 

 observed that this tenacious substance was attractive 

 to flies. In 1826 Dr. Greville said of it : " So very 

 offensive is the smell of this substance that it is 

 seldom allowed to drop away, according to the course 

 of nature, but is generally consumed in a few hours 

 by flesh flies." Thirty years after this Berkeley 

 remarked that " the dripping hymenium affords a 

 welcome food to multitudes of flies." It was, how- 

 ever, not until 1875 that a suggestion was offered as 

 to the interpretation of these insect visitations, in 

 the following words : " This gelatinous substance has 

 nevertheless a peculiar attraction for insects, and it 

 is not altogether romantic to believe that in sucking 

 up the fetid slime they also imbibe the spores, and 

 transfer them from place to place, so that even 

 amongst fungi, insects aid in the dissemination of 

 species."^ 



In order to comprehend the structure and history 

 of the stinkhorn, it will be necessary to give a 

 summary of its principal features and development, 

 almost in the same words as have been adopted by 

 Dr. Wemyss Fulton in reviewing the present aspect 

 of the subject. The hymenophore, or spore-bearing 

 surface, consists, in its earliest stages, of minute swell- 

 ings, which arise on the underground mycelium. 

 These at first are homogeneous, but gradual differen- 

 tiation goes on, so that towards maturity the 

 following parts may be recognized : (i) An enclosing 



' M. C. Cooke, " Fungi, their Nature, Influence, and Uses," p, 123. 

 (1875). 



Q 



