DIV. I 



THALLOPHYTA 



467 



gills and a swollen base to the stalk, which in the two first -named species 

 bears a large lobed sheath. Russula emetica, with a red pileus and white 

 lamellae ; Lactaria torminosa having a shaggy, yellow or reddish-brown pileus 

 and white milky juice. 



fiozites gongylophora, found in South Brazil, is of special ecological interest. 

 According to A. MOLLER, this species is regularly cultivated in the nests of the 

 leaf-cutting ants. Its mycelium produces spherical swellings at the ends of the 

 hyphae, which become filled with protoplasm, the so-called Kohl-rabi heads, and 

 serve the ants as food-material. The ants prevent the development of the accessory 

 conidial fructifications peculiar to this fungus, and thus continually maintain the 

 mycelium in their nests in its vegetative condition. The fructifications, which 

 rarely occur in the nests, resemble those of Amanita muscaria, with which Eozites 

 is nearly allied. According to HOLTERMAN, the mycelium of Agaricus rajab is 

 cultivated in their nests by termites in tropical Asia ( 85 ). 



ECONOMIC USES. Polyporus fomentarius (FUNGUS CHIRURGORUM). Polyporus 

 officinalis ( = Boletus laricis] gives AGARICUS ALBUS, AGARICINUM, and ACIDUM 



AGARICINUM. 



Order 7. Gasteromycetes ( 70 ) 

 The Gasteromycetes are distinguished from the Hymenomycetes by their closed 



FIG. 420. 1, Sderoderma vulgare, fructification. 2, Basidia of same. (After TULASNE.) 

 3, Lycoperdon gemmatum. U, Geaster granulosus. (1, 3, 4. nat. size ; 2, enlarged.) 



fructifications, which open only after the spores are ripe, by the rupture of the 

 outer hyphal cortex or PERIDIUM. The spores are formed within the fructifications 



2H1 



