158 Rev. M. J. Berkeley on the fructification 



tory that it belongs to the class Hymenomycetes. The diffi- 

 culty of examination is here again considerable and the struc- 

 ture can be ascertained in young individuals only, in which 

 the stem is confined to the pileus, and the fructifying mass 

 still spread over its apex. I shall here quote a passage from 

 Brongniart^s ^ Essai d'une classification naturelle des Cham- 

 pignons/ p. 24, who it is to be observed places the Clath- 

 roidees amongst his ^'^ champignons proprement dits." Speak- 

 ing of the fructifying mass he says, ^^ Cette couche est formee 

 de cellules membraneuses tres minces, aux parois desquelles 

 les sporules paraissent fixees. Mais comment ces sporules 

 sont elles enveloppees ? Sont elles nues et libres dans ces cel- 

 lules, ou sont-ce des sporidies ou meme des theques fixees a 

 leurs parois ? C^est ce que nous ignorons.^^ This I believe 

 is the sum of our knowledge on the subject up to the present 

 time. I have not at least met with anything additional, but 

 there are several German journals to which I have not access. 



As in Lycoperdon, the fructifying mass consists of a highly 

 sinuated hymenium. The walls are composed of elongated 

 somewhat spathulate cells surmounted with from four to six 

 spicules, each of which bears an oblong spore. The sporo- 

 phores here again appear to be all fertile and of nearly the 

 same height, but I cannot speak so positively on this point 

 from the extreme difficulty of cutting a clean slice from a mass 

 which at all times is very flaccid. It will be observed that 

 when the number exceeds four the additional spicule is seated 

 between two, which form one side of a square ( •[ \) and that 

 if a sixth is present it is placed opposite to the fifth ( •] |« ). 



Here again then we have an Hymenomycetous fungus, and 

 there can be no doubt that the same structure will be found 

 in all the Phalloidei. Nor is there any reason why they should 

 not follow directly after the Trichogastres through Batarrea, 

 the only difference being that the filaments which form the 

 trama, that is the substance between the two surfaces of the 

 hymenium, in the one case become rigid, in the other deli- 

 quescent. We have already seen that the sporophores in L. 

 giganteum become flaccid and collapse, and it is probably in 

 consequence of this that the mass becomes pulpy, a circum- 

 stance noticed bv Fries as analogous to the deliquescence in 



