British Gasiromycetes. 1 3 
of the face pointing obliquely towards the base of the peridium. 
The hollow portion of the funiculus is about 1 mm. in length, 
and contains a slender coiled cord, which measures when 
opened out from 3-4 cm., but when moist can be stretched 
to 8 cm. without breaking (Fig. 48, a). One end of this coil 
is attached to the peridiolum, the other to the thin central 
portion of the funiculus. In Crucibulum the funiculus is less 
complicated in structure, the hollow portion enclosing the coil 
undergoes gelification at an early period, and the coil, which 
resembles a small protuberance in the centre of the umbilical 
depression of the peridiolum, is enclosed in the resulting 
mucilage. In different species intermediate forms of develop- 
ment of the funiculus, as would be expected, are met with. 
The object of this complex arrangement is not understood. 
Brefeld suggests the possibility of its being an aid to spore 
dispersion, and scarcely any other idea seems to suggest 
itself. The genus Sphaerobolus is characterised by the com- 
plex peridium enclosing a single spherical peridiolum or 
sporangiolum. The following is from Fischer’s masterly 
account of Sphaerobolus stellatus \ The sporophore, which 
is about 2 mm. in diameter, consists at first of a homogeneous 
weft of hyphae. The peridium agrees with the exoperidium 
in Geaster in general structure, and consists of four layers 
(Fig. 55) ; the outermost or mycelial layer (Fig. 55, m) is com- 
posed of loosely woven hyphae, and passes inwards into the 
pseudo-parenchymatous layer, consisting of intricately inter- 
woven hyphae, presenting the appearance of parenchymatous 
tissue in section (Fig. 55, />), and is in turn lined by the fibrillose 
split-layer (Fig. 55,/). The innermost or collenchyma-layer 
consists for the most part of rather large cells, which form 
a palisade-tissue with their long axes at right angles to the 
surface of the peridium (Fig. 55, c ). When mature the peridium 
splits at the apex in a stellate manner caused by the extension 
of the collenchyma-layer, which continues to grow at its peri-> 
pheral surface after the peridium is ruptured. The positive 
1 Bot. Ztg. 1884, p. 448. 
