British Gastromycetes. 2 1 
space between the columella and the inner membrane of the 
peridium. The receptaculum in the expanded state forms a 
hollow sphere from 6-8 cm. in diameter, the wall consisting of 
an irregular lattice-work, and has been shown by Tulasne 1 to 
originate from the inner membrane of the peridium at those 
points where the septa connecting the outer and inner walls 
coalesce with the latter. The structure of the receptaculum 
agrees with that of Ithyphallus , and when expanded is of a 
bright red colour. The gleba and central columella are 
carried up inside the receptaculum, and soon pass into a drip- 
ping olive-green mass, possessed of an almost insupportable 
odour, which is however highly appreciated by flies. 
In Aseroe , which is sometimes met with in greenhouses, 
having been introduced with exotics, the receptaculum, when 
expanded, resembles a stipitate sea-anemone ; the thick basal 
portion divides at the apex into a varying number of dicho- 
tomous rays, which are at first inflexed and surround the gleba, 
the rays, which are of a bright red colour, afterwards spread 
out carrying the disintegrated remains of the hymenium. The 
two marked features of the order are, the presence of a recep- 
taculum and the deliquescence of the gleba into a semi-liquid 
mass containing the spores. There is no trace of a capillitiurm 
Affinities. 
The discovery of basidia in the Hymenogastreae is due to 
Klotzsch 2 , who figured and described these structures in 
Hymenang ium virens , Klotzsch, but the author did not realise 
the importance of his discovery, and rather considered the 
species as not belonging to the Gastromycetes on account of 
the presence of basidia, and it remained for Berkeley, in an 
article on the fructification of Lycoperdon , Phallus , and^ other 
genera 3 , to show that in all essential points, and more especially 
1 Expl. sc. d’Algerie. 
2 Dietrich’s Flora Regni Borussici, vol. vi. t. 382 (1838). 
3 On the fructification of Lycoperdon, Phallus , and their allied genera, see Ann, 
Nat. Hist. vol. IV. p. 155 (1840), 
