Gallacea Scleroderma {Cke.) Lloyd. 199 



Summary. 



1. The monotypic genus Gallacea is confined to New Zealand. 



2. Development proceeds by four stages: (a) the primordium 

 consists of closely woven, intricately branched hyphae; {b) a 

 dome-shaped zone of cavities appears, surrounding a central 

 undifferentiated area, and surrounded by the primordium of 

 the peridium, these ca\ities are large, and do not possess a 

 definite h3Tiienium, basidia appearing on small scattered papillae ; 

 (c) rapid growth of tramae and trabeculae, \nth appearance 

 of numerous lacunae hned \\'ith h\7nenium ; {d) gelatinisation of 

 tramae and trabeculae, accompanied by peripheral formation 

 of gleba around the inner margin of the peridium. 



3. Basidia are at first 1-4-spored and are borne on irregular 

 scattered papillae, but after the appearance of a definite 

 h^Tnenium (c) thev become regularly six-spored. 



4. Colour appears in the outer layers of hyphae of the peri- 

 dium as soon as the plant appears on the surface. It is due to 

 the presence of pigment granules in the protoplasm lining the 

 cell walls. 



5. At maturity the gleba collapses, o\\ing to loss of moisture 

 from the tramae and smaller trabeculae, and Unes the inner 

 walls of the peridium and the trabeculae which persist. 



6. Spores are invariably binucleate. 



7. The genus resembles closely the genus Hysterangium, and 

 on that account is tentatively placed in the Hysterangiaceae. 



LITERATURE CITED. 



Fischer, Ed. Hymenogastrineae in Engler and Prantl. Xatiirlichen Pflanzen- 



familien, ii, pp. 296-313, 1900. • 



Lloyd, C. G. The Lycoperdaceae of Australia, New Zealand and Neighbouring 



Islands, pp. 1-44. Cincinnati, 1905. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES IX AND X. 



All draw-ings and photographs are original. The draw-ings have been made 

 with the aid of a camera lucida. 



Figs. 1-2. Spores borne on papillae scattered over the trabeculae. 

 Fig. 3. Later stage in which scattered basidia have appeared. 

 Fig. 4. Formation of a lacuna by fissuring of the trama; lac. lacuna; immature 



h^-menium on the left, undifferentiated tramal tissue on the right. 

 Fig. 5. First formed hymenium. Xote the long and slender basidia, which 



as yet bear only four spores. 

 Fig. 6. Mature h^Tuenium, %rith a basidium bearing six spores. Hym. hj-menium; 



sub. subhymenium ; tr. trama, gelatinised in section on the right. 

 Figs. 1-6 X 1400. 

 Fig. 7. Photograph of mature and immature plants, the latter in side view, x \. 

 Fig. 8. Photograph Of the same plants sectioned. Note the thick peridium and 



collapsed gleba of the mature plant. The veined appearance is due to the 



persistence of the larger trabeculae. x \. 

 Fig. 9. Photomicrograph of young plant shortly after the commencement of 



differentiation of the gleba. Note the dome-shaped zone of large cavities 



surrounding the central columella, x 2=). 



