CHAPTER V.—COMPARATIVE REVIEW.—GASTROMYCETES. 319 
Batarrea. At any rate the Fungus described by Corda under the name of Cauloglossum 
in the place cited is very near Podaxon, and must be placed with that genus among 
the Lycoperdaceae. It is plain, from the remarks recently made above on the Secotieae, 
that their arrangement in one special group along with Podaxon is founded only on 
superficial resemblances and is not tenable, and that the group of Podaxineae as hitherto 
constituted must be broken up. 
4. The ripe compound sporophores of the larger Nidularieae were described by 
earlier observers as delicate open cups about 1 cm. in diameter containing usually 
10-20 lenticular seed-like bodies. The cup is now known as the peridium, and 
the seed-like bodies as peridiola or sporangia; the latter should be called the 
chambers of the gleba if our present terminology is strictly adhered to. The structure 
and development of these Fungi have been investigated by J. Schmitz, Tulasne, Sachs, 
Eidam, and Brefeld. Crucibulum vulgare, Tul. may be taken as an example of the 
group, and the description of it will be founded in the main on the works of Sachs and 

FIG. 150. Crucidulum vulgare. A—C median FIG. 151. Crucibulum vulgare. Thin median section through 
longitudinal section through ripening sporophores ; suc- the upper part of a sporophore of about the same age as 3 in Fig. 
cessive stages of development according to the letters. £50, more highly magnified and seen in transmitted light, the dark 
D sporophore just ripe in which the epiphragm is be- parts containing air; a? outer, 2 inner layer of the wall of the peri- 
ginning to disappear, seen from without. .4—C slightly dium, z/ and a/ its hairs, » funiculus, 2 the layer which forms a sheath 
magnified, D natural size. round it and belongs to a peridiolum which is divided through the 
middle. After Sachs. 
Brefeld. The first beginnings of the compound sporophores are small spherical bodies 
produced by the interweaving of copiously branched mycelial hyphae. The weft of 
primordial hyphae thus formed is at first close and colourless and contains air ; but the 
branches at the periphery soon develope into stout hairs with tooth-like branches and 
brown membranes, which cover the surface as a brown felt. With this covering 
the small sphere grows by constant formation of new elements in the interior of the 
hyphal weft into a thick cylindrical or obconical body about 6 mm. in height. The 
differentiation into the parts which are found at maturity begins before the body has 
reached half its ultimate size and advances with the general growth. The first 
separation is seen in the internal primordial tissue which is originally uniformly white in 
consequence of the air contained in it, in other words in the opaque primordial tissue, 
and the result is that a zone between the periphery and the middle becomes a gelatinous 
felted tissue free from air and therefore transparent. The differentiation of this zone 
begins above the base of the body; the zone itself, which follows the form of the 
surface of the body, is concave upwards and thickest in the middle, thinning out 
