British Gastromycetes. 49 
nearest ally is H. tener , but the cavities of the hymenium are 
larger ; it is almost without scent, and there is not the slightest 
tendency to become black in drying. There is little dif- 
ference in the size or form of the spores. (B. and Br.) 
Pompholyx sapidum, Corda. Recorded from near Chi- 
chester, but the specimen is evidently a species of Scleroderma , 
probably 5 . geaster. 
SCLERODERMEAE. 
Peridium thick, opening at the apex in an irregular manner, 
gleba containing numerous cavities, tramal plates disappearing 
or persistent, and enclosing peridiola, capillitium absent or 
scanty. Peridium appearing above the ground when mature. 
Allied to the Hymenogastreae, but distinguished by the 
presence of a well-defined base to the peridium, which not 
unfrequently becomes elongated into a stout stem-like base ; 
and by the peridia appearing above the surface when 
mature. 
Scleroderma, Pers. (emended). 
Peridium firm, cortex persistent in the form of warts or 
granules, indehiscent or splitting in a stellate manner at the 
apex ; gleba with the walls of the trama springing from every 
part of the peridium, subpersistent ; spores globose, verrucose. 
Scleroderma , Pers., Syn. p. 159 ; Fries, Syst. Myc. iii, p. 44 ; 
Sacc., Syll. vii, p. 134 (in part). 
The genus is closely related to Polysaccum , from which it 
differs in the trama becoming broken up when the spores are 
mature, whereas in the latter the trama is persistent, espe- 
cially towards the base, and forms the so-called peridiola. 
Scleroderma vulgare, Fr. (Fig. 45). Subsessile, often 
caespitose, irregularly lobed or depressed ; peridium thick, 
corky, thickened and convex internally at the base, white, 
becoming pinkish when cut, externally verrucose ; trama 
white ; spores in the mass blackish with a tinge of purple, 
globose, coarsely warted, 9-1 1 ju diam. 
E 
