TAXONOMY 
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fruiting sporophore consists for the most part of a shell-like covering 
called the peridium, composed of an outer layer or exoperidium and 
an inner layer or endo peridium. The peridium in the unripe con- 
dition of the sporophore covers a mass of soft cellular tissue called 
the gleba. Upon the ripening of this mass, the interior is seen to be 
divided into many-branched compartments that are separated from 
each other by walls made up of branched hyphae. These walls are 
lined with a hymenium composed of many basidia, each of which 
constricts off usually four basidiospores. The earth stars differ 
from the puff balls in possessing an outer wall or exoperidium which 
splits in star-shaped fashion. 
Fig. 103. — ■ A colony of Puff Balls, Lycoperdon, growing saprophytically upon a 
portion of a rotten log. ( Photograph by author.) 
Order 2. — Nidulariales, the nest fungi. A group of Gasteromy- 
cetes whose sporophores are crucible- or crater-like. These arise 
from a subterranean mycelium and show an outer and inner peridial 
layer. The outer peridium is roughened at its base. The inner 
peridium is leathery and may or may not be continued over the top. 
When mature the crucible-like body shows black seed-like bodies 
inside which resemble eggs in a bird’s nest. Each one of these is 
connected with the inner peridium by a cord which resembles the 
umbilical cord of an animal. These inner bodies are called peridiola 
(sing, peridiolum). Each peridiolum consists of a hard glistening 
