178 CHAPTERS ON fUNGi. [June, 



Phallus. 



Receptacle stipitate, pileiform ; border entire. 



Phallus impudicus, L. Common Stinkhorn. Pileus free, 

 conical, pervious, reticulated, borders of the reticulations nearly 

 entire. 



In woods, hedges, etc. etc. Summer and autumn. Not un- 

 common. 



A very curious Fungus, abounding in some seasons, and ap- 

 parently preferring a loose and dry soil. 



In its first stage it appears in the form of a roundish or ovate 

 body, resembling a hen^s-egg, of a whitish colour, smooth and 

 heavy, and half-immersed in the ground. In process of time 

 this egg-shaped body bursts, and gives birth to a white porous 

 stem, from four to six inches long, which bears at its summit a 

 conico-campanulate honeycombed receptacle (or pileus), the cells 

 of which are filled with a dark- green, slimy, stinking substance, 

 in which the innumerable very minute spores are dispersed. 



The Fungus has a most disagreeable odour, and is often de- 

 tected by this property, before it meets the eye, but, strange to 

 tell, on a nearer approach the smell is often less perceptible. 

 This odour proceeds from the slimy matter contained in the cells 

 of the receptacle, and is very attractive to flies, which generally 

 devour the whole contents in a short time, leaving the cells 

 empty. 



The plant in its various stages is beautifully figured by Greville 

 in his ' Scottish Cryptogamic Flora,' vol. iv. t. 213 and 214. 



Suborder 4. Nidulakiacei. 



A small but curious group of Fungi, characterized by the 

 peridium containing one or more sporangia (or seed-vessels), in 

 which the true spores are borne. 



I take the genus Nidularia as illustrative of the suborder. 



NiDULAlUA. 



Common peridium simple, sporangia at first floating in jelly, 

 furnished with a highly elastic pedicel, lentiform, fleshy, filled 

 with a compact mass of spores. 



Nidularia crucibulum, Pers. Cylindrical bird's-nest Pe- 

 ziza. Campanulated-cylindrical, truncate above and below, sub- 



