MYCELIUM 



15 



are covered with a dense felted mass of white mycelium. 

 When this is fully developed, scores and hundreds of little 

 black points appear in the midst of the hyphae, averaging in 

 size from a grain of sand to that of a small bean. These 

 become indurated and hard, and, in fact, properly-constituted 

 sclerotia, internally composed of polygonal cells. These also 

 subside into a con- 

 dition of rest, in 

 which they spend the 

 winter, and germinate 

 in spring. The re- 

 sulting Fungus in this 

 instance consists of 

 similar slender twist- 

 ed stems, but the 

 head, instead of being 

 globose.is cup-shaped, 

 then flattened, bear- 

 ing the name of 

 Sderotinial/ibertiana, 

 or,as known in former 

 years, a species of 

 Peziza, one of the Dis- 

 comycetes (Fig. 3). 

 Several other instances might be quoted in which the Sclerotium, 

 when germinating, produced a species of Peziza, especially a large 

 one common in company with the roots of the Wood Anemone. 

 A large species of Russula, common in the woods, turns quite 

 black when dead and decaying. On the gills of these decaying 

 Bussulae many sclerotiae will be seen, resembling in form small 

 grains of barley. These germinate speedily, and produce a little 

 Agaric (Collybia tuberosa). In Australia a sclerotium nearly as 

 large as the fist develops a tough gill-bearing Fungus, shaped 

 like a wine-glass, named Lentinus cyathus. But a still larger 

 sclerotium, which has been known for years as " Native Bread," 

 and grows as large as a child's head, has been recently found 

 to develop a white Polyporus with a central stem, and has 

 been named Polyporus Mylittae. 1 



1 Grevillea, Dec. 1892, p. 37. 



Fig. 3. — Sclerotia germinating and producing Pezizae, 

 A to D. Aseus and sporidia, E. Gard. Chiron. 



