3io 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



germination gemmae produce clamp-connexions from the first 

 (Fig. 156, B and C). 



Some basidia of Sphaerobolus stellatus are shown in Fig. 157. 

 One can find them in a fruit-body two days before the glebal mass 

 should normally be discharged, but very shortly after this time 

 (within 24 hours) their bodies and sterigmatic points disappear. 



A basidium-body is short 

 and swollen above, and at 

 its base there is often a 

 clamp-connexion (Fig. 157, A, 

 B, G-I). The spores are 

 oval to pear-shaped, pointed 

 below, colourless, thick- 

 walled, and crowded together 

 on the top of the basidium. 

 Sterigmata are absent. The 

 number of spores on each 

 basidium was found to vary 

 from four to eight (Fig. 157, 

 G-P). The shape of isolated 

 spores and the thickness of 

 the spore-wall are illustrated 

 in Fig. 158. 



Hyphae from the walls 

 of the glebal chambers are 

 shown in Fig. 159. Ordinary 

 hyphae bearing clamp-con- 

 nexions are represented at a, b, and c and fat cells at dr-t. The fat 

 cells, which hitherto appear to have escaped notice, are much 

 swollen and of irregular shape. Eventually their walls break down 

 and their contents are liberated. Thus the fatty matrix in which 

 in a discharged glebal mass the spores, gemmae, and cystidia are 

 embedded comes into existence. 



At a certain stage in its development, the fruit-body, yielding 

 to an expansive pressure exercised upon it by the palisade layer, 

 opens at its top in a stellate manner (Fig. 142, p. 288) ; and then one 

 can see the ball-like gleba lying, as it were, at the bottom of a tiny 



Fig 



155. — Sphaerobolus stellatus. Large 

 rounded cells, known as cystidia, present 

 in the glebal mass at the time of its 

 disoharge. These cells form a layer at 

 the periphery of the gleba (c/. Fig. 146, 

 p. 295) and are also scattered sparsely 

 throughout the glebal mass among the 

 spores. The fourteen cystidia repre- 

 sented serve to indicate variations in 

 size. Drawn by A. H. R. Buller and 

 Ruth Macrae. Magnification, 1060. 



