NEW ZEALAND FLAX. [ 460 ] 



NIDULARIACEI. 



NEW ZEALAND FLAX. See PHOR- 

 MIUM and TEXTILE SUBSTANCES. 



NICOTHOE, Aud. & Edw. A genus of 

 Crustacea, of the order Siphonostoma, and 

 family Ergasilidse. 



N. astaci (PL 14. fig. 36, fern.) is found 

 upon the gills of the lobster. 



The sides of the body are extended into 

 two remarkable lobes, containing the ovaries 

 (a) and the intestinal canal. 



BIBL. Baird, Brit. Entom. p. 300; Van 

 Beneden, Ann. des Sc. not. 3 ser. xiii. 



NIDULARIACEI. A small family of 

 Gasteromycetous Fungi, including the Ni- 

 dularini or bird's-nest-like Fungi, and the 

 Carpoboli which contain only one concep- 

 tacle. They are small and inconspicuous 

 Fungi, growing on the ground among de- 

 caying sticks, dung, &c., bearing upon the 

 flocculent mycelium yellow or dull-coloured 

 fruits or receptacles (fig. 524). The external 



Fig. 524. 



Fig. 525. 



Cyathus vernicosus. 



Fig. 524. A ripe receptacle. Nat. size. 

 Fig. 525. The same, opened vertically. 



part of the receptacle consists of a more or 

 less globular or ovate peridium, which bursts 

 when mature, in the Carpoboli by a lid or 

 by more or less regular slits, in the Nidu- 

 larini by an orifice which enlarges so that 

 the mouth becomes turned out as a spread- 

 ing lip around a cup-shaped cavity (fig. 524). 

 The Carpoboli, containing only one concep- 

 tacle, project this out with elasticity when 

 ripe. The Nidularini contain many concep- 

 tacles lying like eggs in a nest (figs. 524, 525), 

 in Cyathus and Crucibulum (fig. 526), at- 



Fig. 526. 



Crucibulum vulgare. 



A conceptacle detached from the ^receptacle. 

 Magnified 12 diameters. 



tached by a funiculus. The structure of the 

 conceptacles is alike in all. The envelope 

 of each is triple (fig. 527), and they form a 



Fig. 527. 



Cyathus vernicosus. 



A nearly ripe receptacle, cut open vertically, showing 

 the two halves filled with conceptacles. 



Magnified 3 diameters. 



cavity lined by delicate filaments which con- 

 verge towards the centre, where their extre- 

 mities are expanded into basidia crowned 

 by four spores (fig. 528), which are cylindri- 



Fig. 528. 



Cyathus striatus. 



Basidia and spores from the fertile layer of a conceptacle. 

 Magnified 250 diameters. 



Fig. 529. Fig. 530. 



Fig. 531. 



Cyathus striatus. 



Fig. 529. Vertical section of a young receptacle. Magn. 



10 diams. 



Fig. 530. Another, more advanced. Magn. 10 diams. 

 Fig. 531. Another, still more advanced. Magn. 5 diams. 



cal and almost sessile. The filaments being 

 of very unequal length, the basidia are inter- 



