310 DIVISION II.—COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 
Corda; or it is composed of a tough gelatinous felt, as in Hysterangium and 
Melanogaster. 
The peridia show no marked peculiarities of structure, having a close weft like 
that of the walls of the chambers formed of hyphae which run chiefly in the direction 
of the surface. They decay after the spores have ripened and while the gleba is 
gradually becoming disintegrated. 
The Secotieae, or at least the genus Secotium and Cauloglossum trans- 
versarium, are Hymenogastreae in structure with a stipe and a thick central column 
which traverses the entire peridium up to the apex in the line of prolongation of the 
stipe (Fig. 144). 
2. The young compound sporophores of the Lycoperdaceae, with whose 
development we have any acquaintance (Lycoperdon, Bovista, Geaster), display 
the structure of the Hymenogastreae in all important points up to the time of the 
formation of spores, only the young peridium is developed on a much larger scale. 
One point of difference makes its appearance at an early period; two kinds of hyphae 
are formed in the trama when still young: slender delicate segmented hyphae rich 
in protoplasm, which make up the chief mass of the trama and by their branches form 

FIG. 143. Tulostoma mammosum, FIG. 144. Secotiumerythrocephalum, 
Fr. Basidia with fully formed spores Tul Sporophore divided in half, of 
highly magnified. After Schröter. the natural size. After Tulasne. 
the constituents of the hymenium; and stouter tubes usually non-septate, which are 
members or branches of the same hyphae as the delicate elements and run for the 
most part in the trama, but may also, as in Lycoperdon and Bovista, send branches 
transversely through the chambers from one wall to the wall opposite. When the 
spores begin to ripen the delicate hyphae and the elements of the hymenium become 
dissolved with copious effusion of water and entirely disappear. The thick tubes on 
the contrary persist and grow, and acquire a shape and structure which vary in the 
different genera and species, and their membranes become thickened and usually 
assume a lively colour, yellow passing into brown. Together they form in 
the compound sporophore, which ultimately becomes dry by the evaporation of 
the water produced in it, a woolly mass of loose texture, the capzllitium, the 
interspaces of which are filled with large quantities of a dry powder, the ripe 
spores. 
I include here under the name Lycoperdaceae all the species in which the 
structure of the ripe gleba points to the above course of development, excepting only 
for the present the genus Tulostoma, which will be considered below. They are 
