174 FUNGI, 
ceptacles are still spherical and white, and have not attained a 
diameter exceeding the one-twentieth of a millimetre, it is suif- 
cient to compress them slightly in order to rupture them at the 
summit and expel the ‘‘scolecite.” This occupies the centre 
of the little sphere, and is formed of from six to eight cells, 
curved in the shape of a comma. 
In Peziza melanoloma, A. and §., the same observer succeeded 
still better in his searches after the scolecite, which he remarks 
is in this species most certainly a lateral branch of the filaments 
of the mycelium. This branch is isolated, simple, or forked at a 
short distance from its base, and in diameter generally exceeding 
that of the filament which bears it. This branch is soon arcuate 
or bent, and often elongated in describing a spiral, the irregular 
turns of which are lax or compressed. At the same time its 
interior, at first continuous, becomes divided by transverse septa 
into eight or ten or more cells. Sometimes this special branch 
terminates in a crozier shape, which is involved in the bent part 
of another crozier which terminates a neighbouring filament. In 
other cases the growing branch is connected, by its extremity, 
with that of a hooked branch. These contacts, however, did 
not appear to Tulasne to be so much normal as accidental. But 
of the importance of the ringed body, or “scolecite,” there was 
no room for doubt, as being the certain and habitual rudiment 
of the fertile cup. In fact, inferior cells are produced from the 
flexuous filaments which creep about its surface, cover and sur- 
round it on all sides, while joining themselves to each other. 
At first continuous, then septate, these cells by their union con- 
stitute a cellular tissue, which increases little by little until the 
scolecite is so closely enveloped that only its superior extremity 
can be seen. These cellular masses attain a considerable volume 
before the hymenium begins to show itself in a depression of 
their summit. So long as their smallness permits of their being 
seen in the field of the microscope, it can be determined that 
they adhere to a single filament of the mycelium by the base of 
the scolecite which remains naked. 
Although Tulasne could not satisfy himself of the presence 
of any act of copulation in Asco’olus furfuraceus, or Peziza 
