1 8 Massee . — A Monograph of 
in Battarrea . In B. Steveni De Bary has shown 1 that the 
whole course of development up to the maturing of the spores 
is passed while still enclosed in a volva as in the Phalloideae , 
when the volva is ruptured by elongation of the stem, which 
is the homologue of the receptaculum in Iihyphallns and 
Mutinus , a portion of the volva being usually carried up on 
the surface of the circular peridium, which is more or less 
crescent-shaped in section. Finally the peridium splits along 
the margin, the upper portion falling away and leaving the 
spores exposed on the lower persistent part from which they 
are soon removed by wind or rain. The hyphae with spiral 
or annular thickenings inside, forming the scanty capillitium, 
have been already alluded to. Whether these hyphae play 
any part in bringing about the dehiscence of the peridium is 
not known. Schroter, who has investigated the development 
of Ttdostoma 2 , states that the whole differentiation of the 
gleba takes place underground. When the spores are mature 
the short stem-like base, which consists of a central cylinder 
surrounded by a sheath-like continuation of the peridium, 
commences to elongate. This elongation is entirely due to 
increase in length of the central portion, the sheath being 
ruptured transversely, one portion remaining sheathing the 
base of the stem, the other forming an abrupt termination of 
the peridium round the apex (Fig. 34). The peridium is not 
separated into two layers. The peculiar basidia and septate 
threads of the capillitium have been already described. 
Phalloideae. The three British representatives of the 
present order illustrate the two extremes of sporophore-dif- 
ferentiation, which in the present group reaches its maximum 
of development, in fact the various genera seem to vie with 
each other in their attempts to produce, at any cost, the most 
perfect arrangement for spore-diffusion, which in many instances 
has resulted in very grotesque and quaint-looking structures. 
It has been already stated that in the present order the spores 
are disseminated by insect agency, and as in the Orchideae, in 
1 l.c. p. 317. 
2 Schroter, Entw. v. Tulostoma ; Cohn’s Beitr. II. p. 65. 
