CHAPTER V.—COMPARATIVE REVIEW.—GASTROMYCETES. 321 
Nidularia the shape’ and opening of the peridium is less regular. As regards 
Nidularia there is nothing to be added to what has been already said. It may be 
specially noticed that the surface of the peridiola has the same structure in all cases, 
at least in the stages of the development which have been examined. The earliest 
states are not known, but peculiar appendages are found on the surface of the mature 
peridiola of Crucibulum and Cyathus ; these appendages are produced, like the other 
parts, from the primitive tissue by the process of differentiation and are not subjected 
to gelatinisation ; but the history of their development is not yet clearly understood, 
and some parts of it are matters of controversy (Figs. 150 C, 151%, /, 152). The mature 
peridiolum of Crucibulum has an umbilical depression in the middle of the surface which 
is towards the peridium, and in the depression is a body which in the intact state is 
smooth and round and projects towards the outside. This body consists of a compact 
strand of very slender hyphae rolled up and bent into a dense coil, which may therefore 
be termed the umbilical coil or tuft. The hyphae are surrounded by a colourless 
mucilage ; and this mucilage and the whole tuft swell when moistened and the hyphae 
become soft, so that they may be easily drawn out into a filiform strand 3-4 centi- 
metres in length. The hyphae of the tuft are inserted at one end in the outer layer 
of the wall of the peridiolum, and where they are most perfect they continue their 
course closely united and parallel to one another as a smooth and somewhat sinuous 
strand visible to the naked eye as a fine thread, the fumzculus, which is attached to 
the inner surface of the wall of the peridium. In the young state, before the 
differentiation, both strand and coil are loosely enveloped in a layer of hyphae which 
passes through the gelatinous felt like a bag stretched in the direction of the funiculus. 
As the development is completed the bag becomes gelatinised, but remains of it are 
still to be seen as a thin covering especially over the coil. The existence of the 
funiculus is denied in the case of Crucibulum by Brefeld as against Tulasne and 
Sachs ; but it is certainly often there. It is true that I have been myself unable to 
find a funiculus in some peridioles, but the coil always showed a small point which 
answers to it; it would appear therefore that in such cases it has itself finally suffered 
gelatinisation. 
In Cyathus under otherwise similar conditions coil and strand and bag are persistent, 
and thus more complicated phenomena arise, which vary in particular points according 
to the species. 
In Cyathus striatus, for example, the funiculus when intact has an average length of 
more than 2mm. _ It is nearly cylindrical in shape, and is divided by a deep transverse 
constriction in the middle into an upper and a lower portion. The lower portion and 
the slender middle piece are formed of a weft of much-branched and thick-walled but 
slender hyphae; this weft in the dry state is brittle, but when moist is tough and 
tenacious and may be stretched to more than double its length. The upper portion 
is a bag which reaches from the lower portion to the wall of the peridiolum and passes 
into it; in this bag is a filiform strand of slender parallel hyphae about 3 cm. long 
and disposed therefore in numerous coils inside the bag, which is only I mm. in 
length. The upper end of the strand is attached to the peridiolum, the lower passes 
into a coil, which, like the umbilical coil of Crucibulum, is enveloped in mucilage and 
enclosed in the somewhat swollen lower end of the bag. The wall of the bag has 
essentially the same structure as the lower portion of the funiculus. The whole body 
is rather brittle in the dry state. It swells by absorption of water and becomes soft 
and flexible ; the coiled strand may be drawn out to the length mentioned above when 
the bag is torn up, but not much beyond it; the coil behaves exactly as in Crucibulum ; 
by a little manipulation its hyphae may be drawn out together till the whole strand 
reaches to a length of 8cm. The hyphae of the extensible tissue of the funiculi are 
slender and usually have their walls thickened till the lumina disappear; they are 
divided into long cells resting one on another with their swollen extremities, where 
they show peculiar clamp-formations. 
[4] Y 
