174 FUNGI. 



ceptacles are still spherical and white, and have not attained a 

 diameter exceeding the one-twentieth of a millimetre, it is suffi- 

 cient to compress them slightly in order to rupture them at the 

 summit and expel the " scolecite." This occupies the centre 

 of the little sphere, and is formed of from six to eight cells, 

 curved in the shape of a comma. 



In Peziza melanoloma, A. and S., the same observer succeeded 

 still better in his searches after the scolecite, which he remarks 

 is in this species most certainly a lateral branch of the filaments 

 of the mycelium. This branch is isolated, simple, or forked at a 

 short distance from its base, and in diameter generally exceeding 

 that of the filament which bears it. This branch is soon arcuate 

 or bent, and often elongated in describing a spiral, the irregular 

 turns of which are lax or compressed. At the same time its 

 interior, at first continuous, becomes divided by transverse septa 

 into eight or ten or more cells. Sometimes this special branch 

 terminates in a crozier shape, which is involved in the bent part 

 of another crozier which terminates a neighbouring filament. In 

 other cases the growing branch is connected, by its extremity, 

 with that of a hooked branch. These contacts, however, did 

 not appear to Tulasne to be so much normal as accidental. But 

 of the importance of the ringed body, or " scolecite," there was 

 no room for doubt, as being the certain and habitual rudiment 

 of the fertile cup. In fact, inferior cells are produced from the 

 flexuous filaments which creep about its surface, cover and sur- 

 round it on all sides, while joining themselves to each other. 

 At first continuous, then septate, these cells by their union con- 

 stitute a cellular tissue, which increases little by little until the 

 scolecite is so closely enveloped that only its superior extremity 

 can be seen. These cellular masses attain a considerable volume 

 before the hymcnium begins to show itself in a depression of 

 their summit. So long as their smallness permits of their being 

 seen in the field o? the microscope, it can be determined that 

 they adhere to a single filament of the mycelium by the base of 

 the scolecite which remains naked. 



Although Tulasne could not satisfy himself of the presence 

 of any act of copulation in Asco'.>olu,s furfuraceus, or Peziza 



