70 A MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS PODAXIS DESV. (= PODAXON FB.). 



shrivelled condition after the escape of the daughter-cells, and known 

 as an ascus ; hence the resemblance presented by the Elaphomyceta 

 to the Lycoperdinea, as stated by Tulasne, depends on the spores 

 forming a pulverulent mass when mature, and on the presence of 

 a capillitium, imperfect at first, as would naturally be expected, 

 nevertheless the precursor of a contrivance which, in its perfected 

 form, as seen in the majority of Gastromycetes that become elevated 

 into the air when mature, proved of service in spore-dissemination, 

 so long as this was effected by physical means, but which we find 

 to be eventually superseded in the Phalloide/s, where, by a gradual 

 modification of certain portions of hyphse along other lines, we find 

 a series of contrivances in the form of scent, colour, and sugar 

 respectively produced for the purpose of favouring the visits of 

 insects, and thus securing spore-dissemination after the fashion of 

 seed-dispersion in certain groups of phanerogams. I have shown 

 elsewhere* the gradual conversion of the ascigerous Tuberacets into 

 the basidiosporous Hymenogastrea, due to the changes of asci into 

 basidia, and the subsequent evolution of the whole of the above- 

 ground Gastromycetes from the subterranean ascigerous Tuberacea 

 through the Hymenogastrea, ; and now we find a second attempt on 

 the part of the Tuberacea to evolve an above-ground branch through 

 the Elaphomyceta, and continued by the genera Podaxis, Tulostoma, 

 and possibly Baiarrea and Queletia. 



The asci in the Elaphomyceta appear to be in a very unstable 

 state ; in Elaphomyces granulatm Vitt. we find asci of the same 

 shape, and arranged in clusters exactly as in Podaxis (fig. 15); and 

 in one and the same portion under the microscope, asci containing 

 one, two, three, and four spores respectively can usually be seen, 

 the asci varying in form and size depending on the number of con- 

 tained spores (figs. 16-18) ; in the remaining species of Elapho- 

 mycea the asci, as regards arrangement and variability, agree with 

 E. granulatus. In all the species of Elaphomyces the commonest 

 number of spores in an ascus is four, but a single spore is by no 

 means uncommon ; and the capillitium, although consisting of 

 thick-walled and obviously differentiated hyphae, is devoid of any 

 arrangement in the way of spiral corrugations for promoting 

 elasticity, which would be useless in a subterranean fungus ; but in 

 Podaxis, where, due to the excessive development of the homologue 

 of the sterile basal portion in many of the Hppoyai, the peridium is 

 elevated above ground, we find an improvement in the portion 

 specially told off for promoting spore-dissemination, the capillitium; 

 and contemporaneous with this modification we find the ascigerous 

 mode of spore-formation being replaced by the basidiosporous 

 method. 



Now this is the sequence presented in the evolution of the 

 Gastromycetes before mentioned ; why should it be necessary, when 

 the subterranean Tuberacea evolve above-ground sections, that the 

 original ascigerous condition should be replaced by a basidiosporous 



* ' A Monograph of the British Gastromycetes,' Ann. Bot. vol. iv. pp. 1 — 101, 

 4 plates. 



