20 Mas see. — A Monograph of 
the spores are mature the gleba assumes a dark olive-green 
colour and becomes watery, owing to deliquescence of the 
elements of the hymenium. At this stage the peridium is 
ruptured in an irregular manner at the apex, owing to the 
sudden expansion of the hitherto compressed cavities in the 
walls of the receptaculum, which consequently increases con- 
siderably in length, and the ‘pileus’ being attached to its 
perforated apex is elevated several inches above the ruptured 
volva or peridium, which remains sheathing the base of/the^ 
stipe like the volva in the higher forms of Agar lens, / \vltl^ "N 
which it is at the same time homologous and analogous: ' 
After the liberation of the hymenium from the peridium it ’ 
soon passes into a semi-liquid, strong-scented, dripping mass, 
in which the spores are imbedded, and is greedily devoured 
by bluebottle flies or washed off by rain, the uncoloured pileus 
remaining as a sheath at the apex of the receptaculum (Fig. 
44). The genus Mutinus differs from lthyphallns . in not 
having a free pileus, the spores being borne on the modified 
apical portion of the receptaculum, or, as supposed by Berkeley, 
the pileus is adnate throughout to the receptaculum. In M. 
caninus the sporiferous portion of the receptacle is bright 
red, and there is little or no scent ; whereas in M. bambusinus 
colour and scent are both present. 
The early stage of Clathrns , before the peridium is ruptured, - • 
closely resembles that of lthyphallns , being a white, subglobose - 
body with a semitransparent look, and feeling rather gelatinous 
and elastic when pressed between the fingers. The chalk-white 
strand of mycelium from which it originates reaches, to 1 mm. 
diameter, and if carefully followed will usually be found much . 
branched and giving origin to several sporophores, varying* ill , 
size from 1 mm. to 5 or 6 cm. in diameter. The peridium '• 
consists of an external and internal thin membrane enclosing 
a thick gelatinous layer ; the latter is not homogeneous as m 
lthyphallns, but traversed by anastomosing plates of tissue . . 
uniting the inner and outer membranes. The central portion 
of the sporophore forms a columella, from the surface of which 
are given off the tramal plates of the gleba, which occupies the_ - . 
