for uniformity we call the mycelial layer, though inaccurately so-called 
in cases like G. radicans where the mycelium is basal. 
The Middle or Fibrillose Layer. —This is usually the 
thickest and principal layer of the outer peridium and in many her¬ 
barium specimens is the only one that remains, the outer and inner 
layers having peeled off and disappeared. Its nature varies much in 
different species. In the Rigidae it is firm, thick, strongly incurved 
when dry, and strongly hygroscopic. When the plant is moist the 
segments reflex, and they curl in again when dried, and the process 
can be repeated as often as the plants are moistened and dried. Fig. 
5 represents a dried plant as found in the herbarium, Fig. 6 is the 
same plant after having been moistened. All Geasters are to an ex¬ 
tent l^groscopic and the simplest way to make a crushed specimen 
assume its normal shape is to place it a few minutes in a jet of free 
steam which puffs them out plump and natural. The photographs 
of many of the specimens we present would not be supposed to be 
the same specimen we received. In most species of Geaster the 
fibrillose layer instead of being firm as in Rigidae is to an extent 
flexible and in the only specimen we have seen of “G. turbinatus” it 
resembles parchment paper. 
The Inner or Fleshy Layer —This layer differs very much 
from both of the preceding. When the plant opens it is thick, soft, 
fleshy, usually white or pinkish. As it dries it almost always turns 
dark reddish brown, dries down to a thin adnate layer, or splits up 
and peels off entirely or partially. A photograph of a Geaster taken 
with this layer fresh is quite different from the photograph of the dried 
specimen of the plant. Sometimes instead of drying down to a 
thin layer, if exposed to the weather it thickens, becomes spongy, 
torn. This is particularly the character of the fleshy layer of G. ru- 
fescens. In many species if specimen of the plant be dried when it 
first opens, the fleshy layer remains as a thin red adnate layer, whilst 
if left exposed to the weather the layer peels off and disappears entire¬ 
ly. Specimens collected in these different conditions appear like dif¬ 
ferent plants. Sometimes the fleshy layer separates from the fibrillose, 
and remains as a kind of cup at the base of the inner peridium. This 
is purely an accidental character and while present in many specimens 
(see Fig. 47) is absent in others. It is the basis for such species as G. 
triplex, and made the key character in Saccardo. While we consider 
G. triplex a good species, it is on entirely different points from this 
feature, from which it receives its name. 
Fig. 60 shows a specimen of G. coronatus in which a portion of 
the fleshy layer in peeling off has chanced to tear in a circumscissile 
manner and dried as a separate ring, which being too small to slip over 
the inner peridium remains as a loose collar at its base. It is needless 
to say that this is purely accidental and might never occur in another 
specimen. 
3 
