INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 345 



species ; but beyond this the tribe is of little use in an 

 economical point of view. Polysaccum yields a yellow die, 

 and is much used on that account in Italy. The contents of 

 dry Lycoperdons are used as tinder, as a styptic, and as an 

 anesthetic. 



3. NlDTJLAEIACEI, Oda. 



Common receptacle bursting at the apex, horizontally, irregu- 

 larly, or by stellate fissures, consisting of two or more layers, 

 which sometimes separate and become inverted. Partial recep- 

 tacles free, or attached by elastic threads filled with a compact 

 mass of cells, of which those in the centre are sporophores. 



374. This a small but most curious group of Fungi, differing 

 in many respects from every other division. The uterus is 

 highly developed, and consists of several distinct coats, which 

 either burst with a stellate fissure above, or expose the general 

 cavity by the separation of a little lid, or an irregular rupture. 

 Within this cavity are one or more distinct sporangia, often 

 immersed in jelly, either free or fixed by an elastic string to 

 the common walls ; sometimes exploded elastically by the 

 inversion of one of the coats, and containing a cellular mass, 

 surrounded agaiu by several distinct coats. The contained 

 mass is at first compact and cellular, but a cavity is at length 

 formed in the centre, and the cells which terminate there bear 

 spores at their tips, exactly after the fashion of Hymenomy- 

 cetes. At present, the immediate connection with other Fungi 

 does not appear visible, though partial peridia exist in Poly- 

 saccum. I do not. Id deed, know of a single genus which con- 

 nects the group sensibly ynth. any other. Pilobolus presents 

 merely an analogy ; Thelebolus is little known ; and Atracto- 

 bolus, Tode, is nothing more than the eggs of a species of 

 Rhipignathus, unless Fries has something answering to 

 Tode's artificial character. Some wonderful tales respecting 

 these eggs were told by Dr. Mantell. The inner membrane 

 has precisely the same chemical reaction under iodine and sul- 

 phuric acid as cellulose, a circumstance which might in some 

 measure excuse the assignation of such bodies to the vegetable 

 kingdom, though the whole appearance is entirely that of 

 minute eggs. The force with which the sporangium of SphcB- 



