FUNGI. 139 



and the cellulose walls greenish the complementary .colour of 

 the blue of the cellulose and the brown of the tincture of 

 iodine. 



The structure of the spores is very simple : all present a cell 

 without a nucleus. The cellulose walls are very thin, yet possess 

 great resisting power. They are covered with a nitrogenous 

 utriculus, which encloses a fluid in which granules are suspended, 

 possessing sometimes a whirling motion (Brown's molecular 

 movement). The utriculus may be recognised by the above- 

 mentioned reactions, during which it is torn into rags. 



The simplest fungi, like the Torulacese, represent isolated cells, 

 or rows of two, three, four, &c., cells, which are very analogous 

 to the spores of many species of fungi. Each cell is the mother 

 of a new similar one, whilst the spores of the higher fungi 

 generate a longish cell which forms the filament of the myce- 

 iium. 



2. The Receptacle (receptaculum, chapeau, capitulum, chapiteau) 

 is the organ upon which, directly or indirectly, the spores which 

 have been set free rest. They are held fast by means of " ba- 

 sides" whose " spicula " or " sterigmata " bear a spore, or by 

 means of " clinodes" When the spores are not free, they are 

 contained in the receptacle or in the sporangia. A great many 

 species form their receptacle of a longish cell scarcely differing 

 from the filaments (for instance, the Oidium albicans), or of a 

 row of cells, when the last cell displays the presence of spores oil 

 its surface by a slight swelling, and represents the receptacle, 

 whilst the preceding, which are for the most part broader than 

 the filaments, represent the stem (pediculus, caulis, pedunculus, 

 truncus, petiolus, stipes), that is, the more or less capacious 

 bearer of the receptacle. 



When the receptacle is dry, membranous, and filled with the 

 spores, it is called peridium when it is horny and surrounds the 

 spores, either in their free state or contained in thecce, perithe- 

 cium or peritheque. When the receptacle is of a globular or 

 disc-like shape, the conceptacle, a peculiar, globular or oval, 

 horny or fleshy, hollow organ which encloses the sporangia of the 

 thecce, and which opens by means of bursting its sides or 

 through a pore at the end, is observed. The theca = sporangium 

 is a distinct, globular, oval, or longish vesicle, capable of isola- 

 tion, filled with spores, and which is sometimes placed on the 

 surface of the receptacle, and sometimes in a conceptacle. 



