Part 39

The genus Scleroderma is allied to Lycoperdon, but differs from it in the absence of a capillitium, and in the thick indehiscent outer skin, or peridium, which bursts irregularly on the maturity of the spore-mass, the flocci adhering on all sides to the peridium and forming distinct veins in the central mass.

The species Scleroderma vulgare is very common in woods, and has sometimes been mistaken for a form of Truffle. The plants are not very attractive, and the odor is rank. They are subsessile and irregular in shape, with a hard outer skin, the larger form of a yellowish or greenish brown hue, and covered with large warts or scales, the smaller very minutely warty, and of a darker brown hue. The internal mass is of a bluish-black hue, threaded through with white or greyish flocci. Spores dingy. The interior becomes pulverulent when the plant matures. This species has been eaten in its young state when cooked, but the flavor is by no means equal to that of the large puff-balls. It is sometimes attacked by a fungus larger than itself, called Boletus parasiticus, and this parasite is again attacked by a species of Hypomyces, one of the genera of the Pyrenomycetes, which grows in patches upon dead fungi.

PHALLOIDEAE OR PHALLACEAE.

The Phalloideae, sometimes called the "Stink-horn" fungi on account of their foetid odor, are not numerous, the whole number of described species being about eighty. The plants are watery, quick in growth, and decay very rapidly. They are varied in form and are quite unlike the ordinary mushroom types. In some of the genera the plants are columnar and phalloid, in other clathrate or latticed, in others again the disk is stellate, and in one genus it is coralloid, but they are all enclosed, in the early stage, in a volva which is at first hidden or partially hidden beneath the surface of the ground. A gelatinous stratum is contained within the firmer outside membrane.

Genus Ithyphallus. In this genus the cap is perforated at the top, free from the stem and reticulate. No veil. The mature plants are columnar in form with the remains of the volva enclosing the column-like stem at the base; the cap in its deeply pitted reticulations somewhat resembling that of the Morel, although of different texture.

PLATE H.

FIGS. 1 to 6.--=Ithyphallus= impudicus Linn. "Foetid Wood Witch."

In the embryonic stage the plant is enclosed in a volva which is composed of three layers, the outer one firm, the intermediate one gelatinous, and the inner one consisting of a thin membrane. The gleba, or spore-bearing portion, in the early stage forms a conical honeycombed cap within the inner shell or membrane, concealing the stem to which it is attached. The stem at this stage is very short, cylindrical, and composed of small cells filled with a gelatinous substance. The volva is about the size of a hen's egg. On maturity it ruptures at the apex. The stem rapidly expands and, elongating, elevates the cap into the air. The stem becomes open and spongy, owing to the drying of the gelatinous matter and its quick expansion.

The whole plant attains a height of from four to ten inches in a few hours. The hymenial surface is on the outside of the cap, the spores being embedded in its glutinous coated ridges and depressions. The hymenium is at first firm but rapidly deliquesces, holding the spores in the liquid mass. The cap is greenish or greenish-gray in color, changing to a dark bottle-green. In its deliquescent state the odor is very repulsive. While enclosed in the volva the unpleasant odor is not so perceptible, and it has been eaten in that condition without unpleasant effects, but in its mature stage it is considered unwholesome, and certainly its offensive odor would be quite sufficient to deter most persons from attempting to test its edible qualities. Flies, however, are very fond of the fluid, and consume it greedily and with impunity. It is found in gardens and woods, its presence being detected several rods away by the offensive odor. Specimens occur in which the color of the cap is white or reddish.

In the allied genus Mutinus the pileus is adnate and is not perforated at the apex. Mutinus caninus resembles impudicus in form, but the cap is continuous with, not free from the stem, and is crimson in color, covered with a greenish-brown, odorless mucus. The stem is hollow, whitish, tinted with a pale yellow or orange color. Not common.

Genus Clathrus Mich. In this genus the receptacle is sessile, and formed of an obovate globular net-work. At first wholly enclosed in a volva which becomes torn at the apex and falls away, leaving a calyx-like base at its point of contact with the stem.

FIG. 7.--=Clathrus cancellatus= Tourn.

UNWHOLESOME.

Receptacle bright vermillion or orange red, covered at first with a greenish mucus which holds the colorless spores. Volva white or pale fawn color. Odor strongly foetid.

MYXOMYCETES OR MYXOGASTERS.--"Slime Fungi."

In their early history the Myxomycetes, or "slime moulds," were classed with the gasteromycetal fungi, and by Fries grouped as a sub-order of the Gasteromycetes, under the name Myxogasters. From this connection they were severed in 1833 by Link, who, recognizing certain distinctive features which entitled them to consideration as an entirely separate group, ranked the Myxogasters, as a separate order, under the title Myxomycetes, Slime moulds. De Bary, in a monograph on the subject written some years later, questioned the right of this group to the place assigned it in the vegetable world, claiming that the Myxogasters were as nearly related to the animal as to the vegetable kingdom, and changing the name to Mycetozoa. Massee assailed this position in his "Monograph of the Myxogasters," pointing out that De Bary derived his reasons and deductions from the early or vegetative stage of the fungi, without taking sufficiently into account the characteristics of the later or reproductive stage in which the great disparity between these organisms and those of the lower animals becomes apparent.

Dr. Rostafinski, the Polish botanist, and pupil of De Bary, adopts the name given the group by De Bary, but applies it in a more restricted sense, classifying on a botanical basis. Both De Bary and Massee have their earnest disciples. M. C. Cooke takes the ground that the Myxomycetes are entitled to mention as "fungi which produce their fructification enclosed within a peridium," although considering them as an aberrant group which, on account of certain peculiarities of their early or vegetative stage, should no longer be classed as having affinity with Gasteromycetes. Without further discussion of the subject, it is sufficient, for our present purpose, to state that mycologists now very generally agree in regarding this group as quite distinct from the Gasteromycetes.

The species are minute, rarely exceeding a millimeter in diameter, at first pulpy, then dry. In the early or vegetative stage the "slime mould" is plasmoidal, consisting of a mass of protoplasm without cell wall, and prefers damp surfaces, such as rotting leaves, moist logs, etc. The whole substance is slippery or slimy and presents different hues, red, orange, violet, brown, etc., according to species, but never green. It is in the reproductive or fruiting stage that their resemblance to microscopic puff-balls appears, the sporangium in many species exhibiting a distinct peridium or outer coat which encloses the spores together with the hair-like threads called the capillitium. On the ripening of the spores this peridium ruptures, allowing their escape, the capillitium lending valuable aid in their dissemination.

GENERA OF GASTEROMYCETES, ACCORDING TO SACCARDO.

I.--PHALLACEAE, OR PHALLOIDEAE.

Dictyophora, Desvaugh. Ithyphallus, Fr. Mutinus, Fr. Kalchbrennera, Berk. Simblum, Klotzsch. Clathrus, Mich. Colus, Cav. & Sech. Lysurus, Fr. Anthurus, Kalchbr. Calathiscus, Mont. Aseroe, La Bill. Staurophallus. (?)

II.--NIDULARIACEAE.

Nidularia, Fr. & Nordh. Cyathus, Hall. Crucibulum, Tul. Thelebolus, Tode. Dacryobolus, Fr. Sphaerobolus, Tode. Polyangium, Link. } Genera delenda. Atractobolus, Tode. }

III.--LYCOPERDACEAE.

Gyrophragmium, Mont. Secotium, Kunze. Polyplocium, Berk. Cycloderma, Klotzsch. Mesophellia, Berk. Cauloglossum, Grev. Podaxon (Desv.) Fr. Sphaericeps, Welw. & Curr. Tylostoma, Pers. Queletia, Fr. Battarrea, Pers. Husseya, Berk. Mitremyces, Nees. Geaster, Mich. Diplocystis, B. & C. Diploderma, Link. Trichaster, Czern. Broomeja, Berk. Coilomyces, B. & C. Lanophila, Fr. Eriosphaera, Reich. Bovista, Dill. Calvatia, Fr. Lycoperdon, Tourn. Hippoperdon, Mont. Scleroderma, Pers. Castoreum, C. & M. Xylopodium, Mont. Areolaria, Forquigu. Phellorina, Berk. Favillea, Fr. Polygaster, Fr. Polysaccum, D. C. Testicularia, Klotzsch. Arachnion, Schw. Scoleciocarpus, Berk. Paurocotylis, Berk.

IV.--HYMENOGASTRACEAE (HYPOGAEI).

Hysterangium, Vitt. Octaviania, Vitt. Rhizopagon, Fr. Melanogaster, Corda. Hymenogaster, Vitt. Hydnangium, Walk. Gautieria, Vitt. Macowanites, Kalchbr.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.