GASTEROMYCETES 497 



the volva gel plates VG, the palisade remains sterile and changes into a 

 pseudoparenchyma. 



At maturity, the secondary tramal plates and hymenium become a 

 dark, olive-green gel containing the primary tramal plates, the columella 

 and portions of the volva gel plates (Fig. 317, B, C). The portions of the 

 peridium lying between the volva gel plates develop zones of dehiscence 

 D, resulting in a ragged peridium through which the spores escape. 



Mutatis mutandis the changes from Hysterangium to Phallogaster are 

 parallel to the Pachyphloeus-Piersonia series. Pachyphloeus and Tuber 

 would correspond to Hysterangium, Piersonia with its localization of the 

 fundaments of the asci to the inner folds, to Phallogaster. 



Clathraceae. — While in the previous family, the tramal plates grow 

 into a free space which the branches of the columella create by pushing 

 the peridium outward, in this family, they grow into an intermediate 

 tissue which is subsequently absorbed, leaving the cavities. 



In the Brazilian Protubera Maracuja (Moller, 1895), the youngest 

 stages show a clavate widening of the mycelial strand, whose rind passes 

 into the peridium and whose core becomes the gleba of the young fructi- 

 fication. The branches of the columella arch outward enclosing portions 

 of peridial tissue, which is not pushed outward. This included tissue is 

 called intermediate tissue or peridial plates, Zw.Gefl. (Fig. 318, 2). With 

 increasing size of the fructification, it also grows in breadth (Fig. 318, 3). 

 In the meantime, a centrifugal growth of the columella branches sets in, 

 expanding it radially. Its fate is variable; in the peripheral parts it is 

 crushed into narrow peridial plates Zw.gefl.pl. by the branches of the 

 columella which there spread out to the scutelate volva gel plates VG 

 (Fig. 318, 4 and 5). These peridial plates persist and separate the volva 

 gel plates at maturity. Further toward the interior, the branches of the 

 columella do not spread out to such a degree; here, their longitudinal 

 growth forms an elongate cavity Gl.Km, which is still filled with the loose 

 remnants of the peridial plates. These cavities, which correspond to the 

 polyhedral glebal chambers of Phallogaster, are not originally developed 

 as cavities but result from the disintegration of the intermediate tissue. 



In a corner between the branches of the columella HA, the hyphae 

 which radiate from these branches are arranged (even in the stage of Fig. 

 318, 3) in a palisade which spreads laterally and covers the walls of the 

 cavities. As in the Hysterangiaceae and Phallogaster, tramal plates, 

 which develop to the labyrinthine tangle of the mature gleba, are formed 

 by the local growth of the tissue beneath. 



The mature fructification (Fig. 318, 1) has a diameter up to 5 cm. 

 The peridium Per is at most % mm. thick, and consists of a brown, 

 pseudoparenchymatous tissue. It does not contrast with the gleba, but 

 lies upon the white or often almost bluish volva gel VG, 2 to 3 mm. thick 

 which is connected through the gel-plates, the branches of the columella 



