OABPOPHTTA. 177 



Striking being the Giant Puff-ball (L. giganteum), whose 

 spore-fruit sometimes is 30 cm. or more (one foot) in diam- 

 eter. The proper plant, that is, the vegetative 

 portion, lives underground, obtaining its food 

 from decajring vegetable matter. The great 

 ball is a spore-fruit composed of innumerable 

 filaments whose swollen extremities (basidia) 

 bear spores (basidiospores). 



368. There are other genera, as the Earth- |u^gu;'(c;,.a- 

 stars (Geaster), whose outer coat splits into a susx™NatS- 

 star- shaped form, the curious little Bird's-nest "^^ ^'^*' 

 Fungus (Crucibulum and Cyathus, Fig. 97), fetid Stink-horn 

 (Phallus), etc. 



Practical Studies. — (as) Collect specimeDS of puff-balls in various 

 stages of growth. Make very thin sections of the young spore-fruit, 

 and look for the cavities lined with spore-bearing cells (basidia). 



(6) Mount in alcohol some of the dust whicli escapes from a dry 

 puff-ball. Examine with a high power, and note the spores and frag- 

 ments of broken-up filaments. 



(c) Dig up the earth under a cluster of young puff-balls, and ob- 

 serve the vegetative filaments. Examine some of these filaments 

 under the microscope. 



369. The Toadstools {^Order Hymenomycetes). — These 

 plants are doubtless to be regarded as the highest of the 

 chlorophyll-less Carpophytes. They are not only of consid- 

 erable size (ranging from one to twenty centimetres, or 

 more, in height), but their structural complexity is so much 

 greater than that of the other orders that they must be 

 regarded as the highest of the fungi. Like the Puff-balls, 

 they produce an abundance of vegetative filaments (myce- 

 lium) underground or in the substance of decaying wood. 

 These filaments are loosely interwoven, becoming in some 

 cases densely felted into tough masses or compacted into 



