CARPOSPOREJE. 



339 



of their spores (eight spores are often produced on a basidium) ; but their fructifications 

 are always angiocarpous. 'The hymenia are formed in the interior of the fructification, 

 which is at first usually spherical, or at any rate does not present externally any distinc- 

 tion of parts. The spores are disseminated by means of remarkable differentiations of 

 the different layers, the growth of particular masses of tissue, or the simple bursting 

 of the outer layer (the peridium). The nature of these processes, which are extremely 

 various in their external appearance, may be understood from two examples. The first 

 example, Crucibulum 'vulgare^, is selected from the beautiful NidularieaB. The my- 

 celium forms a small white crust of branched hyphae, which extend over the surface of 

 wood. In the middle of the crust the filaments are interwoven into a roundish body, the 

 rudiment of the fructification ; this grows by the intercalation of new branches of the 

 hyphae, and gradually assumes a cylindrical form. The outer hyphae form at an early 

 stage yellowish-brown branches, which are again branched and directed outwards, form- 

 ing a dense covering of hair. While the spherical fructification is becoming changed 



Fig. ■22%.— Crucibulum -vtUgare ; A, B, C 

 in longitudinal section (slightly magnified) ; 

 D the entire plant nearly mature (natural 

 size). 



Fig. -zi^.— Crucibulum. vulgare; longitudinal section through the 

 upper part of a young fructification (X about the same as Fig. 228, B). 

 The section is seen by transmitted light ; the dark parts in the interior 

 are those where air occurs between the hyphae; at the light parts a 

 transparent mucilaginous substance free from air has formed between 

 the hyphae. The light parts of this figure are dark in the previous ones. 



into a cylinder, a large number of brown threads shoot out from it (Fig. 228, C, rf), 

 which form a firmly-woven layer, the outer peridium, and on the outside of this a dense 

 mass of radially projecting hairs. The walls of the hyphae of this part assume a dark 

 colour, but the inner tissue remains colourless (Fig. 228, A)\ its apex increases in 

 breadth, the hairs separate from one another, and the outer peridium ceases to exist at 

 the apex (Fig. 229, «/>). In the meantime the differentiation of the tissue commences in 

 the interior of the Fungus, which is at first formed of densely-woven much-branched 

 hyphae, enclosing amongst them a considerable quantity of air which gives the whole 

 a white appearance. Certain portions of the air-containing tissue become mucilaginous 

 and freed from air; between the threads is formed in some places a hygroscopic 

 transparent jelly, while in others none is produced. The conversion into mucilage 

 begins first below the surface of the white medulla (Fig. 228, A)^ and its outer layer is 

 thus transformed into an inner peridium which is a colourless sac projecting beyond the 



^ Compare Sachs in Bot. Zeitg. 1855. 

 Eidam, in Cohn's Beitrage, vol. 2, 1877.] 



[See also Tulasne, Annales des Sci. Nat. 1844, vol. I; 



