PERIDIOEES. 
In the Nidulariacese or “bird-nest fungi” the walls thicken and 
each chamber remains as a separate, little seed-like body enclosing the 
spores. This is called a peridiole. (See Fig. 8.) In Arachnion the 
m¥ 
Fig. 8. 
Section (enlarged) of a Cyathus, 
showing peridioles. 
Fig. 9. 
Polysaccum with upper portion breken off, 
showing peridioles. 
“puff-ball” is filled with sack-like peridioles appearing to the eye as 
grains of sand. In Polysaccum (see Fig. 9) the peridioles are large 
and only partially separated from each other, the interior of a broken 
plant having the appearance of being honeycombed. In Scleroderma 
the walls of the gleba chambers are more or less permanent in the diff¬ 
erent species. In some specimens of S. bovista they remain almost 
perfect and approximate Polysaccum. In most species of Scleroderma 
however, only fragments of the walls are mixed with the spores. 
capieeitium. 
The threads that are contained in the spore mass of various 
Gastromycetes, though absent in many genera, are characteristic in 
each genus that has them, and are important factors in classification. 
How much longer I do not know, but certainly as far back as 3876, the 
peculiarities of the capillitium of the different genera were described 
and illustrated by Hesse. 
6 
