225 
by the Agency of Insects . 
The third group comprises some forms very remarkable in 
shape and colouration. The superior margin of the receptacle is 
divided into erect or spreading rays. In Lysurus Gardneri there 
are five rays united at their apices, leaving vertical slits between ; 
in Lysurus Mokusin there are also five, primarily apically con- 
nected, and then separate, but more or less erect. In Lysurus 
aseroeformis the rays are more numerous, irregularly dichoto- 
mous, and in the early stages in vertical apposition ; but they 
subsequently open up and spread out like the petals of a flower 
(PL XV, Figs. 5, 5 a, 5 b). In Calathiscus sepia the margin of the 
receptacle is expanded and elevated above the hymenium in the 
form of a cup, with twenty narrow erect cirrhose rays. It is in 
the genus Aseroe\ however, that the most striking forms are to 
be found (PI. XV, Fig. 6). The rays are generally horizontal, 
spreading like the tentacles of an anemone, vary from five to 
twenty in number, and are more or less bifid. The breadth of 
the stellate disc varies from about %\ inches in A serve rubra , 
Labill., to nearly a foot in Aseroe Junghuhnii. The hymenium 
either forms a ring around the central opening in the disc, or 
extends some distance on the upper surface of the rays. In eight 
cases the odour is not given, in the remaining three it is foetid. 
In the fourth group are those species in which the receptacle 
is developed in the form of an ovoid or subglobose lattice, 
bearing the hymenium in its interior. It may be exceedingly 
open, as in Laternea , in which two ( Laternea pusilla ), three 
( Laternea triscapa ), or four ( Laternea columnata , Laternea 
angolensis) columns are apically united and widely separated ; 
or it may be much closer, passing through such forms as Coins 
hirudinosus (PI. XV, Fig, 7), in which the lateral columns are 
increased in number, and at their apices united by a localised 
and limited mesh- work, to Clathrus and Ileodictyon , which are 
subglobular and reticulate (PL XV, Fig. 8). Of the 12 species 
given in the table the receptacle in eight is red (66*6 per cent.), 
and in four white. The colour of the external peridium is 
given in 11 cases — in nine it is white, in one brown, and in 
one darkish. The odour is stated in six cases — in four it is 
not foetid, and in two foetid. 
