282 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



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Cyathus. 1 Consequently he called the ball of spores not a peri- 

 diolum, as is still done by many systematists, but a gleba. His 

 illustrations, showing the structure of the fruit-body in detail, are 

 given in his account of the Plectobasidiineae in the Pflanzenfamilien 2 

 and have been reproduced by Zopf 3 and von Tavel. 4 



Other studies of the structure of Sphaerobolus have been made 

 by Lydia Rabinowitsch (1894) 5 and Pillay 6 (1923) — both pupils of 

 E. Fischer — and by Leva Walker (1927). 7 Rabinowitsch added 

 details to our knowledge of the palisade (collenchyma) layer. Pillay 



showed that the germ- 

 tubes of the spores of 

 S. stellatus at once pro- 

 duce clamp -connexions, 

 so that 8. stellatus is 

 homothallic. 



Rabinowitsch and 

 Pillay observed that in 

 the strains of Sphaero- 

 bolus stellatus studied 

 by them there was an 

 entire absence of defin- 

 ite glebal chambers, 

 but that the basidia 

 tend to converge to- 

 ward the middle of 

 each glebal subdivision. 

 They therefore concluded that Sphaerobolus is more closely related 



1 E. Fischer, in Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien of Engler u. Prantl, 1900, Teil I, 

 Abteil. I**, p. 345. 2 Ibid. 



3 W. Zopf, Die Pilze, Breslau, 1890, p. 85, Fig. 55. Zopf also shows the mycelium 

 growing upon, and forming fruit-bodies upon, rabbit dung. 



4 F. von Tavel, Vergleichende Morphologie der Pilze, Jena, 1892, p. 119, Fig. 80. 



5 Lydia Rabinowitsch, " Beitrage zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Fruchtkorper 

 einiger Gastromyceten," Flora, Bd. LXXIX, 1894, pp. 414^18. 



6 T. P. Pillay, " Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte von Sphaerobolus stellatus Tode," 

 Jahrbuch der Philosophischen Fakultdt II der Universitdt Bern, Bd. Ill, 1923, 

 pp. 197-219. 



7 Leva B. Walker, " Development and Mechanism of Discharge in Sphaerobolus 

 iowensis n. sp. and S. stellatus Tode." Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific 

 Society, U.S.A., Vol. XLII, 1927, pp. 151-178, Plates XVI-XXV. 



Fig. 137. — Sphaerobolus iowensis. Median sections 

 of two young fruit-bodies. A, the primordia 

 of the glebal mass and of the peridium are 

 becoming differentiated from one another. 

 B, a further stage in development : the glebal 

 mass now contains many minute glebal chambers 

 lined by young basidia, and the various layers 

 of the peridium are being formed. Sections 

 prepared and photographed by Leva B. Walker. 

 Magnification, about 40. 



