328 On the Fructification of the genera Clathrus and Phallus. 
some transparency, to wet the substance subjected to examina- 
tion ; but then the action of the water detaches a cloud of spores, 
which immediately obscure the field of the microscope. All these 
circumstances suffice to explain how the observations of botanists 
have remained so long without result. 
If a Clathrus cancellatus still undeveloped is cut vertically, we 
remark at first externally, a volva composed of two membranes 
separated by a thick gelatmous layer; immediately under the volva 
and applied to its interior surface are seen the branches, almost 
in a rudimentary state, which are subsequently developed, to form 
the most brilliant part of the mushroom. The interior of the 
space circumscribed by this network is occupied by a greenish 
matter, in the centre of which is a small cavity filled with a co- 
lourless and gelatinous liquid. 
A microscopical examination is necessary to ascertain the in- 
timate structure of these various parts of the mushroom. The 
gelatine of the volva is formed of or intermingled with a great 
number of anastomosed filaments, sometimes articulated, and 
terminated by small swellings ; it is divided by a thin membrane 
into parts completely isolated from one another, and susceptible 
of separating like the sections of an orange. This arrange- 
ment makes the volva appear, on the outside, barred into small 
polygons. The substance of the trellis, of a rose-colour, is solely 
composed of large, round and perfectly distinct cells: some bo- 
tanists, deceived by a superficial examination, have imagined 
that these cells contained a liquid which carried along with it the 
seeds ; but the branches of the Clathrus are m reality only a sup- 
port analogous to the stem of the Phallus, and serve solely to 
prop the greenish substance, the structure of which we proceed 
to examine. 
This substance, at first fleshy, then mucilaginous, is composed, 
as in the Lycoperdons, of sinuous cavities, variously anastomosed, 
separated from one another by a colourless zone, and strewed with 
greenish spores, supported, to the number of four to six, on club- 
shaped basidia. These basidia, scarcely refracting the light, 
should be observed with attention to be seen distinctly ; they are 
sometimes furnished with, and at other times deprived of, sterig- 
mata, and as they do not rise to the same height, the greenish 
layer of spores which surrounds the hymenial cavities appears to 
have a certain thickness. 
Allthis fructiferous mass speedily softens, tears into shreds,by 
the development of the anastomosing branches to which it ad- 
heres, and deliquesces. The liquid which carries the seeds dif- 
fuses a well-known cadaverous odour*. 
* The volva of Clathrus, on the contrary, exhales a delicious aroma,—a 
remarkable singularity hitherto unnoticed. 
