

THE NATURE OF PHALLOIDS. 



It is not necessary here to enter into any technical, botanical 

 discussion as to what constitutes a phalloid. Most of the readers are 

 familiar with this class of fungi, and those who are not will recognize 

 them as soon as they look at our pictures. They are always soft, 

 fleshy fungi that often are developed in a short space of time, usually 

 during a night. They assume most striking and bizarre shapes, are 

 often bright colored, and usually emit a most fetid and unpleasant 

 odor. In short, any fungus that is attractive to the eye by its odd 

 shape or bright colors and is repulsive to the nose is safely a phalloid. 



DEFINITION OF TERMS. 



In the description of Phalloids it is necessary to use a few botan- 

 ical terms, but they are simple and will be readily understood from 

 the following explanation. 



VOLVA. All phalloids, at least all considered in this pamphlet, when young 

 are enclosed in a siubglobose membrane called the volva. In this state a 

 phalloid can well be compared to an egg, in fact it is customary to speak of 

 young phalloids as "eggs." The volva or shell, however, is a soft, thick, gelat- 

 inous membrane. When the plant develops the volva bursts at the top and 

 remains, as a cup at the base of the mature phalloid. All our pictures of 

 phalloids show the volva at the base of the plant, at least all pictures that were 

 made from perfect plants. If there is no volva at the base it is because the 

 illustration was drawn from an imperfect specimen. 



RECEPTACLE. This is. a term that is applied to the portion of the plant 

 that bears the greenish, mucilaginous mass (called the gleba). In some 

 phalloids (such as Clathrus) the entire plant, exclusive of the volva, forms 

 the receptacle. In others, such as Simblum, the receptacle is borne on a stem. 

 Some phalloids are a simple, stem-like structure and bear the gleba directly 

 on the upper portion, then of course the upper portion of the stem is the 

 receptacle. 



GLEBA. This is a greenish, viscid, fetid substance with which all phalloidsi 

 are supplied. It is in fact the fruiting portion of a phalloid, for it contains 

 innumerable, microscopic spores which are analogous to the seed of flowering 

 plants. It is the gleba of a phalloid that is usually so excessively fetid. 

 This bad odor, as offensive as it may be to us, serves a useful purpose 

 to the plants, as it attracts flies and other insects that are the means of the 

 dispersion of the spores. 



STEM. The stem (or stipe) of a phalloid needs no special explanation. 

 It is used in the ordinary sense of the word. Some phalloids have no stems. 



PILEUS. There are some phalloids (the genus Phallus) that have the 

 gleba borne on a special membrane on the top of the stem. This is usually 

 conical or hat-shaped and isi called the pileus. 



VEIL. A most striking feature in a few species that have pilei is a thin, 

 net-like membrane that hangs from under the pileus and spreads out as a net 

 around the stem. It is called the veil (or more correctly the indiisium) but 

 we prefer to call it the veil. 



