THALLQPHYTES 91 



rapidity into a stout, hollow stalk, bursts through the peridium, and 

 carries up on its summit the caplike and chambered gleba, the whole 

 structure suggesting a stipe and pileus. The gleba thus exposed deli- 

 quesces into a slimy, dripping mass with the odor of carrion, which 

 attracts carrion flies, by whose agency the embedded spores are dispersed. 



Lichens 



The Ascomycetes, with a few exceptions, are the lichen formers (see p. 78), 

 and these exceptions are basidiomycetes. These lichens are the tropical Cora 

 pawnia, of loose texture, whose mycelium produces basidia at the surface, instead 

 of the ordinary ascocarp, and a few related forms. 



