British Gastromycetes . 19 
connection with fertilisation, we have extreme specialisation, 
and consequently a devotion of far more than a due proportion 
of the energy possessed in the elaboration of one factor of the 
organism, resulting in the production of numerous unimportant, 
or so-called specific characters, but detrimental to the evolu- 
tion of the group in the broader sense, which may be looked 
upon as sacrificing the future for a momentary flourish. The 
Phalloideae at present stand at the head of the Gastromycetes, 
and owing to the loss of balance in their organisation are likely 
to remain so, any further marked modifications being more 
likely to emanate from the lower orders, as the Lycoperdeae, 
or the Hymenogastreae, where the energy possessed is more 
equally divided between the vegetative and reproductive sides 
of the organism, and not monopolised and stereotyped in the 
production of structures at best more whimsical than useful in 
the great struggle for existence. 
In I thy phallus impudicus the sporophore originates from a 
white, cord-like, branched mycelium as a minute, homogeneous 
weft of hyphae. When about the size of a pea, a vertical 
section of the sporophore shows a central, boss-like, differ- 
entiated mass, comparable to the rudimentary columella or 
thickened base of the peridium in Scleroderma or Lycoperdon , 
and from this stage continues to increase in size, retaining a 
more or less spherical form, until it measures from 5-6 cm. 
diameter, when a vertical section reveals the structure shown 
in Fig. 44, where d is the gleba, a-c the peridium, consist- 
ing of a thin white outer membrane a , an equally thin inner 
one c } between the two a thick gelatinous layer b. The thin 
inner wall, c, is continued as a lining to the inside of the 
‘pileus,’ d , and presents a honeycombed appearance, due to 
raised plates of tissue on its peripheral surface being arranged 
in polygons. This membrane carries the gleba on its peri- 
pheral side. 
The axial portion is differentiated into a hollow stipe or 
receptaculum, which is porous in structure, the cavities before 
the rupture of the peridium being compressed in a direction 
at right angles to the long axis of the stipe (Fig. 44, c ). When 
