PUFF BALLS 227 



more primitive structure, and that the basidium is a 

 later and a higher structure, probably derived from it. 



376. There are about 14,000 species, which may be 

 separated into nine orders, and about twenty-five fami- 

 lies. A few only of these will be taken up here. 



377. The lowest of the Basidium-fungi, the False 

 Tubers (Order HYMENOGASTRALES) are subterranean 

 plants, with subterranean truffle-like, fleshy fruits, which 

 like the truffles are edible and wholesome. They are 

 distinguished from the truffles by the fact that they con- 

 tain basidia instead of asci. 



378. The Puff-balls (Order LYCOPERDALES). The 

 plants of this order are saprophytes, whose spore fruits 

 are often of large size, and usually more or less globular in 

 form. The basidiospores are always borne in the in- 

 terior of more or less regular cavities, and from these they 

 escape by the deliquescence, and subsequent drying and 

 rupture of the surrounding tissues. 



379. The vegetative filaments of Puff-balls penetrate 

 the substance of decaying wood, and the soil filled with 

 decaying organic matter. They 



usually aggregate themselves into 



cylindrical root-like masses. After 



an extended vegetative period the 



filaments produce upon their root- F IO . iog. Puff-ball and 



like portions small rounded bodies, basidiospores. 



the young spore fruits, which increase rapidly in size and 



assume the forms characteristic of the different genera. 



380. No sexual organs have yet been discovered, but 

 analogy points to their possible existence upon the vege- 

 tative filaments just previous to the first appearance of 

 the spore fruits. The spore fruits are composed of inter- 

 laced filaments loosely arranged in the interior, and an 

 external more compact limitary tissue forming a rind 



