SECT. I 



CRYPTOGAMS 



373 



muscaria, but having only a few large patches of the volva remaining attached to 

 its red pileus. 



Of the poisonous Agaricineae the following are best known : Amanita muscaria 

 (Fig. 297) ; Amanita pantherina, which has a brown-coloured pileus studded with 

 white protuberances ; Russula emetica, with a red pileus and white lamellae ; Lac- 

 tarius torminosus, having a shaggy yellow or reddish-brown pileus and white milky 

 juice. 



Rozites gongylophora, found in South Brazil, is of. especial biological interest. 

 According to A. Moller, this species is regularly cultivated in the nests of the leaf- 

 cutting ants. Its mycelium produces spherical swellings at the ends of the hyphfe, 

 which become filled with protoplasm, the so-called Kohl-rabi beads, and serve the 

 ants as food material. The ants prevent the development of the accessory conidial 

 fructifications peculiar to this Fungus, and thus continually maintain the mycelium 

 in their nests in its vegetative condition. The fructifications, which rarely occur 

 on the nests, resemble those of Ama- 

 nita muscaria, with which Rozites is 

 nearly allied. 



Officinal. — Polyporus fomen- 

 tarius (Fungus chirurgorttm), the 

 only officinal species of the Symeno- 

 mycetes. 



Order 6. Gasteromycetes 



The Gasteromycetes are distin- 

 guished from the Hymenomycetes by 

 their angiocarpous or enclosed fructi- 

 fications, which open only after the 

 spores are ripe, by the rupture of the 

 outer hyphal cortex or peridium. 

 The spores are formed within the 

 fructifications in an inner mass of 

 tissue termed the gleba ; it contains 

 numerous chambers, which are either 

 filled with loosely interwoven hyphse 

 with lateral branches terminating in 

 basidia, or whose walls, designated 

 the trama, are lined with a basidial 

 hymenium. 



The Gasteromycetes are sapro- 

 phytes, and develop their mycelium 

 in the humus soil of woods and 

 meadows. Their fructifications, like 

 those of the Hymenomycetes, are raised 

 above the surface of the substratum, 

 except in the group of the JBymeno- 

 gastreae, which possess subterranean, 

 tuberous fructifications resembling 

 those of the Tuberaceae. 



The fructifications of the different genera exhibit great diversity in their struc- 

 ture and mode of formation. 



The fructifications of Scleroderma vulgare (Fig. 299) have a comparatively simple 



2 C 



Fig. 299. — Scleroderma vulgare. 1, A young fructi- 

 fication in longitudinal section, showing the 

 chambers ; 2, portion of the interwoven hyphag 

 with basidia, which fill the chambers. (After 

 Tulasne, from v. Tavel.) 



