NOTES. 
73 
adpressed hairs, and with a crown of minute hairs at the 
apex. — T. P. 
An abnormal Clathrus Egg. — Five eggs of Clathrus crispatus 
were gathered at Hakgala in 1914. All appeared to be normal, 
but when they expanded one of them proved to be double. 
The surface of the egg of this species is marked with a 
network of lines which correspond in position with the meshes 
of the net. Between the lines it is swollen, so that the surface 
consists of a series of tubercular elevations. These swellings 
at the top of the egg are roughly hexagonal (in plan) and about 
a centimetre broad, but those which run down to the base are 
much larger and elongated. A figure of the normal egg was 
published in the Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Pera- 
deniya, Vol. IV., Plate xiii. When the egg is mature, but not 
expanded, the receptaculum forms a compact sphere in the 
centre, surrounded by a thick layer of jelly, and the tuber- 
cular swellings contain jelly only. 
In the present case the diameter of the egg was 8 centimetres. 
The central receptaculum was quite normal, but one of the 
surface swellings situated near the base contained an additional 
receptaculum. The elongated tubercular area was 4*5 
centimetres long and 2 • 5 centimetres broad, and the miniature 
receptaculum nearly filled this space. 
This additional receptaculum was separated by a layer of 
jelly from the normal receptaculum in the centre, and sprang 
from the outer wall of the egg at a node of the superficial 
network. As it was not separated from the main egg by any 
layer corresponding with the outer wall of the egg, it was 
not a case of the fusion of two eggs which originally arose 
independently, but close together, from the mycelium, as so 
often occurs in Dictyophora. 
The abnormal receptaculum was laterally compressed. Its 
lower hah formed a funnel, I • 5 centimetre high and 1 centi- 
metre diameter above, which divided into the five primary 
arms of the net. On one side the funnel was continuous, 
except for a single perforation, but the other side was netted 
almost to the base. The arms of the net were 1*5-3 mm. 
broad, and the number of meshes in the upper part of the net 
6(6)15 (10) 
