326 



BOTANT. 



Puff-balls, of wliicU the best known is L. giganteum, the Giant Puff- 

 ball, an edible species, from ten to thirty cm. in diameter ; Oeaster, 

 the Earth-stars, including several species, and Grueibulum, of which 0. 



mdgare is very common. 

 . \^- (J) This order presents 



^v no unusual difficulties to 



^^^il^A\ , X the student, and it is one 



which should receive more 

 attention than it has hith- 

 erto. For the study of 

 the structure the speci- 

 mens should be taken in 

 their earlier s-tages, as but 

 little can be made out 

 after the hyphae begin 

 breaking up or dissolving. 



424. — Order Hy- 

 menomycetes. These 

 plants are doubtless to 

 be regarded as the 

 highest of the chlo- 

 rophyll - free Carpo- 

 sporess. They are not 

 only of considerable 

 size (ranging from, one 

 to twenty centimetres, 

 or more, in height), 

 but they present a 

 structural complexity 

 which is so much 

 greater than that of 



Tig. 225.— Development of Agaricus campestris. the Other orders, that 

 A, underground mycelium (m), bearing numerous , x i, i. i 



young sporocarps of various sizes. /., vertical sec- they Cannot DUt DC re- 

 tion of a young sporocarp, showing its attachment -, t , , i • i , 



to the mycelium, m. //., verticaF section of an garded aS the highest 

 older sporocarp, showing the annular opening, «. » .n f,,„m T il-a 



///., ihe same at a still later stage. /F., young sporo- "-'J- ^nt) iungi. uiJve 

 carp, with stalk (at); rudimentary gills ((), and the j-n,„ flo otornrmrpo+oa 

 beginning of the veil («). K, sporocarp near y ma- ''"^ vjaauBiuuiyueues, 

 ture ; m, mycelium ; h, pileus ; I, the gills (hyme- f>ipv nrnd iipp an nbnn- 

 nial lamelliE); v, the veil, not yet rupturld; i, a very ^^^^ prOQUCe an aoun 

 young sporocarp. All natural size.— After Sachs. dant mycelium under- 

 ground, or in the substance of decaying wood; it fre- 

 quently consists of multitudes of whitish jointed hyphae, 

 which are loosely interwoTen, but in some cases they be- 



