ASTRAETTS 51 



sunk in the ground, smooth, or rough; very fragile. Gleba consisting 

 of many peridiola', peridiola sulphur yellow, then brown, irregularly 

 angular. Spores reddish brown, warted, globose, 9-10/z. Sandy soil. 

 May Oct. Eare. (v.v.) 



CALOSTOMATACEAE. 



Peridium globose, consisting of several layers. Gleba traversed by 

 sterile veins. Basidia pear-shaped or clavate, bearing sessile, lateral 

 spores. Capillitium well developed, springing from the inside of the 

 endoperidium. Spores coloured, globose or elliptical, verrucose, or 

 smooth. Superficial or half buried in the ground. 



Astraeus Morgan. 

 (a<rrpov, a star.) 



Peridium globose ; exoperidium consisting of three layers, the outer 

 composed of thin, irregularly interwoven hyphae, the middle layer of 

 a corky consistency and the inner cartilaginous and collenchymatous, 

 at first concrete with the endoperidium, then at maturity splitting 

 at the apex in a star-like manner into several lobes and separating 

 from the endoperidium; endoperidium thin, membranaceous or papy- 

 raceous, sessile, dehiscing by an apical aperture. Capillitium well 

 developed, springing from the inner surface of the endoperidium, 

 threads long, much branched and interwoven. Basidia pear-shaped, 

 bearing 4, sessile, lateral spores. Spores coloured, globose, minutely 

 verrucose. Half buried in the ground. 



82. A. hygrometricus (Pers.) Morgan. (= Geastrum hygrometricum 

 Pers.) Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. ra, t. 17. 



vypos, wet; (jterpov, a measure. 



Exoperidium 4r-8 cm., grey, or greyish brown outside, brownish in- 

 side and becoming deeply cracked, globose, tough, leathery, carti- 

 laginous, splitting up into 7-20, acute lobes, divided up almost to the 

 base, strongly incurved and depressed over the apex of the endo- 

 peridium when dry, reflexed and standing up on the apices of the 

 lobes when moist; endoperidium 1-5-2-5 cm., grey, or brown, sessile, 

 globose, depressed, smooth, or subreticulate, dehiscing by an irregular, 

 small apical mouth. Spores brown, minutely verrucose, globose, 

 8-11 jj,. Capillitium hyaline, thick walled, branched, 6-7 \L in diam. 

 Woods, and under trees. Feb. Dec. Uncommon, (v.v.) 



TULOSTOMATACEAE. 



Peridium subglobose, stipitate, or prolonged into a stem-like base, 

 consisting of a thin, fugacious exoperidium, and a thin, membra- 

 naceous endoperidium, which is raised upwards by the firm, fibrous 



42 



