62 
GASTEROMYCETES 
colouring matter readily soluble in water. As it occurs in 
the plant it is black, but dissolved in water it is yellow. 
The plant is still used in the country districts of France, I 
am told by Monsieur P. Hariot, of the Museum of Paris, for 
dyeing purposes.” 
Family NIDULARIACE^E 
(The “ Birds’-nest ” Fungi) 
The spores are produced in the interior of one or usually 
several bodies (peridiola), enclosed in a common peridium. 
In two genera the peridiola are attached to the “ nest ” by a 
cord, the funiculus , as it is termed. It is very elastic, and 
may, when wet, be easily stretched 5 or 6 ins., till it becomes 
as fine as a cobweb ; it is brittle when dry. The peridiola 
are black in the four common species; they are all invested 
with a white membrane, the tunica , but in only one species, 
Crucibulum vulgare, is the membrane thick enough to mask 
the colour, and cause the “ eggs ” to appear white. The 
peridiola are formed by the contraction and hardening of the 
walls of the gleba. The species are small. They are com¬ 
paratively uncommon in temperate regions, frequent in the 
tropics. 
KEY TO THE GENERA 
Cyathus. 
Crucibulum. 
Nidularia. 
Sphserobolus. 
Peridiola umbilicate, attached by a cord to the wall of 
the peridium. 
Peridiola not umbilicate, attached by a cord to the wall 
of the peridium. 
Peridiola not attached to the peridium. 
Peridium globose, containing a single free peridioluin. 
CYATHUS 
(Gr. kuatkos , a wine-cup—from the cup-shaped peridium) 
C. striatus (from the striate inner surface of the peridium), 
“Striated Birds’-nest.” Plate XIX. 1. 
