NIDULARIACEAE 



Plants small, growing on the ground, on dead vegetable matter or on dung; cup- 

 shaped or goblet-shaped or globular; the mouth in two genera closed until maturity 

 by a membrane (the epiphram); gleba in the form of separate, lens-shaped bodies 

 (the periodioles) of easily visible size, which contain a number of large, smooth spores 

 and are covered by a dark, hard, protective coat which is with or without an obvious 

 superficial, white, thinner layer (the tunic). Basidia clavate, with 2-8 smooth, sessile 

 or stipitate, apical or scattered spores, forming in Crucibulum a definite hymenial 

 layer near the center, but in Cyathus occupying irregularly, together with sterile threads, 

 a large central area of the peridiole. Spores smooth, usually flattened, binucleate in 

 the species studied. Capillitium lacking. 



The peridioles do not open of their own accord, but liberate the spores only when 

 eaten by insects (or when decayed?). The tunic is thick and removable in Crucibulum, 

 very thin and obscure in Cyathus (Lloyd thinks it entirely absent in C. stercoreus). 

 The hard wall of the peridioles is only superficially black or brown, and composed almost 

 entirely of very irregular, branching and knobbed, very thick-walled sclerotic cells, 

 which, when a peridium is crushed, are found scattered abundantly among the spores. 

 In nature they retain their position and are not mixed with the spores. These cells 

 are only remotely, if at all, homologous to the capillitium of other genera. Next within 

 this hard layer comes the spore-bearing tissue which may or may not form a definite 

 hymenial layer. See under the different genera for details on this point. The spores 

 have been made to germinate in water and in culture media and have produced fruit 

 bodies in pure culture (Walker, Hesse, Eidam) . On account of the peculiar resemblance 

 to little nests with eggs, these plants are popularly known as "bird's-nest fungi." So 

 far three of the four genera have been found in the eastern states. In two of these the 

 peridioles are connected on their under side to the wall of the peridium by a cord (the 

 funiculus), which is elastic when wet and brittle when dry. In Crucibulum it is usually 

 very obscure after maturity and often disappears from gelatinization. In Cyathus, 

 the funiculus, while much more conspicuous, may be rarely entirely lacking from some 

 of the upper peridioles (Miss White, Lloyd). In the other they are free from the wall, 

 but embedded in a mucus. The spores are hyaline, and are elliptic or subglobose. 

 They vary a great deal in size from the comparatively small ones of Crucibulum vitlgare 

 to the immense ones of Cyathus melanospermus. They also vary considerably in the 

 same collection and at times in the same peridiole, and they are much more abundant 

 in the small-spored species than in those having large spores. In 1902 Miss White 

 (1. c.) brought together in convenient form the species known from North America and 

 established a new genus, NMula, with two species from the western states and Canada. 

 Lloyd (1. c.) adds a third species (the Cyathus emodensis of Berkeley, Kew Journ. 

 Bot. , p. 204. 1854) and extends the geographical range of the genus. For the structure 

 of the peridioles, see Tulasne, Walker, Lloyd, or Fischer, as cited below. Fischer sug- 

 gests that the family may have descended from the Hymenogastraceae, mentioning 

 Octaviania, but the origin of this group is certainly very obscure. Lohwag (cited on 



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