380 THE BASIDIOMYCETES 



Fetch, T., "The Phalloideae of Ceylon," Ann. Roy. Botan. Gard. Per- 

 adeniya, 4: 139-184, 1908. 



Nidiilariales 



The Nidulariales include some 80 species of "bird's-nest fungi," 

 so-called because the gleba is broken up into a number of eggs or 

 peridioles, which, surrounded by the cup-shaped peridium, re- 

 semble a clutch of eggs in a nest. The tendency toward a di- 

 vision of the gleba into a number of elements has already been 

 noted in Pisolithus of the Sclerodermataceae, which is regarded 

 by some workers as an ancestral form of the Nidulariales. A 

 somewhat similar condition is found in Arachnion, sometimes in- 

 cluded in the Nidulariales, although the investigations of Long 

 (1941) seem to relate this genus definitely to the Lycoperdales. 

 Similarly, Sphaerobolus [Walker (1927)] has been considered a 

 bird's-nest fungus in \\'hich the number of peridioles has been 

 reduced to one; perhaps, however, this genus is better placed in 

 the Sclerodermatales. 



As thus dehmited, the Nidulariales comprise but a single family 

 with 4 genera: Nidula, Nidularia, Cyathus, and Crucibulum. Per- 

 haps the most thorough taxonomic treatments of North American 

 species are those of White (1902) and Lloyd (1906); Cunning- 

 ham (1924) has studied the species occurring in New Zealand. 



Crucibulum has but a single species, C. vitlgare, which is prac- 

 tically cosmopolitan. It has been studied morphologically by 

 Sachs (1855), Molliard (1909), and others, notably Walker 

 (1920), and has been grown in pure culture on artificial media. 

 The epigaeous fruiting bodies arise from mycelial strands and 

 become differentiated into an outer peridium and numerous inner 

 peridioles. Each peridiole, which represents a segment of the 

 gleba, becomes separated from its neighbors by hyphal gelatiniza- 

 tion but remains attached to the peridium by a long stalk, the 

 funiculus. The external portion of the peridiole becomes differ- 

 entiated as a thick wall or tunica enclosing the basidia. Each 

 basidium has a clamp connection at its base and bears 4 spores 

 [Martin (1927)]. The mass of peridioles is completely enclosed 

 by the peridium and a thin membranaceous layer, the epiphragm, 

 which extends over the top of the angiocarpous fruiting body. 



