GASTEROM YCETES 



471 



hyphae form the fundament of the coarse fragile peridium, usually scaly 

 on the outside, and quite distinct from the gleba. At numerous points 

 on the ground tissue, the hyphae branch more strongly, intertwine within 

 (Fig. 299, 1, Kn) and rise as dark, deeply staining knots from the sur- 

 rounding undifferentiated ground tissue (Rabinowitsch, 1894). The 

 knots are loosened later with the swelling of the hyphae whose branches 

 are directed toward the middle of the knot. These terminal cells become 



Fig. 299. — Scleroderma Bovista. 1. Median section of periphery of young fructifica- 

 tion. Per, peridium; Kn, knots of hyphae; Tr, tramal hyphae between the knots. 2. 

 Knot at the beginning of basidial formation. 3. Basidiospore with nurse hyphae. (1 X 

 65; 2 X 375; 3 X 570; after Rabinowitsch, 1894.) 



basidia (Fig. 299, 2) which absorb the content of the knot hyphae, so that 

 during the later development of the basidia there are no traces of the knot 

 fundaments. The vacuolate, collapsed hyphae of the ground tissue 

 surround the spores and cling to them so that these are more or less 

 covered with a thick sheath of intertwined hyphal cells (Fig. 299, 3). 

 At maturity the gleba disintegrates into a powdery mass with a few 

 hyphae remaining behind as a simple capillitium; finally, the peridium 



