314 DIVISION II.—COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 
to a splitting and differentiation of an originally uniform hyphal weft, and the accounts 
which we possess would seem to show that this may be assumed of the other genera. 
It is true also of Scleroderma verrucosum, according to Sorokin’s recent observations, 
except that the hymenial coil in each chamber of the gleba is formed, if that observer 
is correct, by the branching of a single bypha which grows from the wall into 
the chamber at a very early period of the development. 
The ripening of the gleba begins in Geaster hygrometricus (Fig. 146) at the apex and 
advances from thence towards the base. According to Bonorden’s and Tulasne’s 
statements it begins in Lycoperdon and Scleroderma in the middle line and proceeds 
centrifugally; according to Sorokin the points where the ripening commences in 
Scleroderma verrucosum vary in different individuals, but are always situated inside the 
leba. 
és The fully formed cagz//itium consists in most of the forms first to be considered of a 
countless number of single tubes or portions of hyphae, which are only woven, not grown, 
together and can therefore be easily isolated without tearing. Form, size, and structure in 
these capillitium-threads are different in different genera and species, and serve admirably 
to distinguish the latter. The threads are generally unsegmented and unicellular ; 



FG. 145. Isolated threads of the capillitium @ of Geaster coliformis, P.; 5 of Bovista plumbea, P.; c of Myce- 
nastrum Corium, Desv. a magn. 190, 5 and c go times. 
they are simple or very rarely branched and shortly fusiform tubes in Geaster coli- 
formis (Fig. 145 2), elongate fusiform and usually unbranched and with the extremities 
very finely tapering and the membrane thickened till the lumen disappears in G. for- 
nicatus, G. fimbriatus, and G. mammosus, &c. In the species of Lycoperdon the 
threads are elongated, curved, and sometimes torulose, and simple or divided into 
single branches which are quite irregular in their disposition ; the extremities have long 
acuminations or are closed by a broad transverse wall which indicates the point 
of union of the thread with the previously formed delicate tramal hypha. Sometimes, 
especially in L. Bovista and L. giganteum, they have a transverse septum here and 
there, and their greatly thickened lateral walls are funished with pits, which is not 
the case in the other genera. The threads in Bovista (Fig. 145 4) have no transverse 
walls and have the appearance of a many-rayed star; a short thick primary stem, 
which often shows plainly the former place of junction, sends out short branches in 
several directions; the branches form on the average four bifurcations, which increase 
in length but diminish in thickness with each successive order, those of the last order 
being prolonged into tapering hairs. Mycenastrum (Fig. 145 ¢) has short thick 
