an Ledisi ds " 
POraNicAlL (,AZETIE 
AUGUST 1897 
THE PHALLOIDEZ OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Ill. ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF ELONGATION OF THE RECEP- 
TACULUM. 
EDWARD A. BuRT. 
Durnc the greater part of its existence, the fructification of 
a fungus of this strange family is a compact egg-shaped body, 
the outer part consisting of a thick and highly gelatinous perid- 
ial wall, and the inner portion of the receptaculum and spore- 
mass. This stage of existence of the fructification is usually 
subterranean or semi-subterranean. As it nears the stage in 
which elongation sets in, the rapid growth of the receptaculum 
in its limited space in the peridium throws the chamber-walls of 
the receptaculum and often, as in Mutinus caninus, the wall of the 
Stipe as a whole into complicated folds. When the spores are 
mature, elongation of the receptaculum occurs by processes to 
be considered in the present paper, the folds of its walls 
straighten, and the apex of the receptaculum is pushed outward 
and upward through the investing peridial wall, irregularly rup- 
turing the latter, which remains, however, connected with the 
receptaculum at the base and forms a loose bag, the volva, 
about its lower end. Through elongation of the receptaculum, 
the spore-mass is carried upward to a position more advanta- 
geous for the dispersal of the spores; this seems to be the end 
attained. 
1897] 73 
