anatomical differences which only an expert microscopist can trace and 
concerning which the ordinary student knows nothing excepting that 
which he reads. 
BASIDIA. 
If we believed in the German 
scheme of classification we would con¬ 
sider the basidia the most important 
part about a gastromyces and all 
other characters subservient to them. 
We are told that the basidia are of 
various shapes and that in some plants 
they form a lining to the gleba cham¬ 
bers. The way the spores are borne 
on the basidia is also characteristic; 
in Geaster the)" are almost sessile ; in 
Bovista the spores are borne on long 
stalks called sterigmata; in Tylostoma 
and Mitremyces they are almost ses¬ 
sile and lateral. The number of spores 
also vary from four in Tycoperdon 
to a dozen or more in Mitremyces as 
.shown in our cuts. These cuts copied 
from Kngler & Prantl were originally 
from several authors. (*) 
THE RIPENING OF PUFF-BALLS. 
One of the most curious phenomena in connection with these 
plants is the change that takes place when the spores ripen. As the 
young plant grows the interior is a solid, white, firm, fleshy mass. When 
it reaches full size and ripens the tissues deliquesce, become moist, 
discolored, the tissues of the tramal chambers are absorbed and disap¬ 
pear, and finally the water dries away, leaving the peridium filled with 
a dry, dusty mass, usually consisting of slender threads and countless 
multitudes of ripe spores. This is now called the spore mass and the 
threads capillitium. The phenomenon of ripening in all Gastromycetes 
I believe is attended with deliquescense and absorption of more or less 
of the hyphal elements of the gleba, but the walls of the chambers do 
not in all genera disappear. 
Fig. 7. Basidia. 
a—Tylostoma. c—Bovista. 
b—Geaster. d—Mitremyces. 
(=:--) We have given thus the detail of the minute structure of Gastromycetes as it is the basis 
of modern classification. Personally we do not approve of it. Assuming that it is the correct 
theory the time is not ripe for it. The basidial structure of comparatively few species is known. 
With by far the greater part of them and many genera the basidial structure is only conjectural. 
It seems to be the tendency of some writers to select the most obscure and difficult points on 
which to base classification. This has one advantage, it gives an air of greater learning. For 
our part we feel that a system based on points of difference of the mature plant obvious to the 
student, is more satisfactory and rational. To our mind there is no room in any Sutural system 
of classification for the Nidulariaceae between Astrceus (admitting the genus for argument) and 
Geaster. no matter what their basidial structure may be. 
e> 
