of tissue which anastomose with one another in every direction. In 
the accompanying cut (Fig. 4) the chambers of the gleba can be seen 
with the eye (if the printer does justice to the cut); the chambers 
of the sterile base are very large and evident. The walls of the 
Fig:. 4. 
Section of a joung Lycoperdon. 
Fig. 5. 
An ideal enlarged chamber of the gleba of Geaster. 
chambers consist of layers of branched hyphse bearing a hymenial 
layer on both surfaces which line the interior walls of the cavities. 
The hymenial hyphse terminate in basidia bearing usually four spores. 
The figure which we give herewith (Fig. 5) taken from Engler & 
Prantl, (originally from Tulasne) of an enlarged gleba chamber illus¬ 
trates this structure. In this figure the hyphse constitute the thread¬ 
like tissue forming the walls of the chamber, the basidia are seen to 
bear four sessile spores. 
In Scleroderma, Geaster hygrometricus, Polysaccum, and in 
certain other genera, all the hyphse which enter a chamber are elon¬ 
gating, copiously branched, and woven together into a loose mass fill¬ 
ing the chamber. (Fig. 6.) Plants possessed of this structure form 
Fig. «. 
Basidia (enlarged) of Scleroderma. 
the order Plectobasidineae of Fischer, but we think even if theoretic¬ 
ally correct, it is not a matter of policy to classify plants by minute 
4 
