CARPOSPOREM. 
339 
of their spores (eight spores are often produced on a basidium) ; but their fructifications 
are always angiocarpous. The hymenia are formed in the interior of the fructification, 
which is at first usually spherical, or at any rate does not present externally any distinc- 
tion of parts. The spores are disseminated by means of remarkable differentiations of 
the different layers, the growth of particular masses of tissue, or the simple bursting 
of the outer layer (the peridium). The nature of these processes, which are extremely 
various in their external appearance, may be understood from two examples. The first 
example, Crucihulum 'vulgare'^, is selected from the beautiful NidulariesB. The my- 
celium forms a small white crust of branched hyphae, which extend over the surface of 
wood. In the middle of the crust the filaments are interwoven into a roundish body, the 
rudiment of the fructification ; this grows by the intercalation of new branches of the 
hyphae, and gradually assumes a cylindrical form. The outer hyphae form at an early 
stage yellowish-brown branches, which are again branched and directed outwards, form- 
ing a dense covering of hair. While the spherical fructification is becoming changed 
into a cylinder, a large number of brown threads shoot out from it (Fig. 228, C, rf), 
which form a firmly-woven layer, the outer peridium, and on the outside of this a dense 
mass of radially projecting hairs. The walls of the hyphae of this part assume a dark 
colour, but the inner tissue remains colourless (Fig. 228, A)\ its apex increases in 
breadth, the hairs separate from one another, and the outer peridium ceases to exist at 
the apex (Fig. 229, ap). In the meantime the differentiation of the tissue commences in 
the interior of the Fungus, which is at first formed of densely-woven much-branched 
hyphae, enclosing amongst them a considerable quantity of air which gives the whole 
a ^hite appearance. Certain portions of the air-containing tissue become mucilaginous 
and freed from air ; between the threads is formed in some places a hygroscopic 
transparent jelly, while in others none is produced. The conversion into mucilage 
begins first below the surface of the white medulla (Fig. 228, A), and its outer layer is 
thus transformed into an inner peridium which is a colourless sac projecting beyond the 
^ Compare Sachs in Bot. Zeitg. 1855. [See also Tul^sne, Annales des Sei. Nat. 1844, vol. I; 
Eidam, in Cohn's Beiträge, vol. 2, 1877.] 
Z 2 
