162 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF FUNGI 



final dispersion of the spores being effected by the wind and 

 rain." 1 



In seeking for the affinities or analogues of the species of 

 Podaxis, Mr. Massee thinks that these should be traced through 

 the subterranean Gastromycetes to the ascigerous Elaphomyceteae. 

 " I have shown," he writes, " the gradual conversion of the 

 ascigerous Tuberaceae into the basidiosporous Rymenogastreae, 

 due to the changes of asci into basidia, and the subsequent 

 evolution of the whole of the above-ground Gastromycetes from 

 the subterranean ascigerous Tuberaceae through the Hymeno- 

 gastreae ; and now we find a second attempt on the part of the 

 Tuberaceae to evolve an above-ground branch through the 

 Maphomyceteae, and continued by the genera Podaxis, Tylostoma, 

 and possibly Battarrea and Queletia. 



He might further have indicated that in another direction, 

 through Secotium, Polyplocium, and Montagnites, the Gastromycetes 

 are linked to Coprinu-s, and, through that genus, with the 

 Agaricini. Montagnites, or as sometimes called Gyrophragmium, 

 has in some systems been included with Hymenomycetes in a- 

 position next to Coprinus, to which it bears some resemblance. 



The Sclerodermeae are a group which seem to fall into an 

 intermediate position between the Zycoperdaceae and the sub- 

 terranean Gastromycetes — a fact which was recognised by Mr. 

 Massee when he indicated that they differed from the former 

 in the absence of a capillitium and in the indehiscent peridium ; 

 and from the latter in not being subterranean, although there 

 are one or two species in which subterranean individuals are 

 sometimes to be met with. " As in the Hymenogastreae, the 

 peridium is thick, usually warted or rugulose. externally, and 

 but little differentiated, the trama springing from every part of 

 its inner surface. In Polysaccum the cavities of the gleba are 

 comparatively large and uniform in shape, being more or less 

 polygonal in section. The walls of the trama are bright yellow 

 in most species. In this genus the peridium appears to be 

 completely formed at a considerable distance underground, as 

 some species have a stout stem-like base, from eight to ten 

 inches long and completely buried in the ground, the peridium 

 alone appearing at the surface. From what is known in other 

 1 Maasee, " Monograph of the Genus Podaxis," in Jour, of Botany, March 1890. 



