GASTEROMYCETES 



495 



limited space, these lie in numerous folds and finally fuse with the hyphae 

 of the stipe. At maturity the peridium breaks or is loosened from the 

 stipe at its lower margin and expands, as in some species of Secotium and 

 Macowanites. 



As a last member of this series we may mention Podaxis carcinomalis 

 (Podaxon carcinomale) with much the same geographical distribution 

 as Endoptychum, being confined to the 

 warmer, drier regions. The fructifica- 

 tions consist of a solid woody stipe and 

 columella, a fusiform glebal tissue and 

 a fragile, scaly peridium (Fig. 316) 

 which separates from the top of the 

 columella and from the stipe, and 

 cracks longitudinally around the lower 

 edge. The gleba is spongy with the 

 tramal plates reduced to strands of 

 hyphae bearing tufts of basidia. 

 Maturation proceeds from below up- 

 wards, the gleba eventually forming a 

 dusty mass of capillitium and spores, 

 as in the Lycoperdaceae ; Gaumann 

 (1926) places it in a separate family as 

 an appendix to the Agaricales, empha- 

 sizing its similarity to Endoptychum 

 (Secotium) which he also placed in this 

 order. 



The main line of the family, leading 

 toward the Clathraceae, develops from 

 forms similar to Hysterangium fuscum 

 (H. Gardneri), but having a completely 

 percurrent columella and a more highly 

 developed stipe. The small spores and 

 the more or less gelatinous consistency 

 is retained. 



Rhopalogaster transversarium (Caulo- 

 glossum transversarium) of the south- 

 eastern United States, continues this 

 tendency. The shape of the mature fructification is similar to that of 

 Podaxis (Cauloglossum), in which group it was formerly placed, or still 

 more like that of Clavaria pistillaris (Johnston, 1902). The primordium 

 of the gleba is first seen as a ring of small chambers surrounding the upper 

 third of the club. The tissue outside this ring, the fundament of the per- 

 idium, which consists of loosely interwoven hyphae, ceases growth and is 

 gradually stretched by the developing gleba until it becomes thin and torn 



Fig. 316. — Podaxis car cinomalis. A. 

 Exterior. B. Section of fructification. 

 ( X }/% ; after Schweinfurth.) 



