, dark brown, smooth,
shining.

The spores are colorless, round or elliptical or pear-shaped, produced
on sterigmata, 7-8x8-9u. Sometimes found on the ground and on leaves,
but their favorite home is an old log. Found from July to September.

CHAPTER XIV.

SUB-CLASS BASIDIOMYCETES.

GROUP GASTROMYCETES.

Gastromycetes is from two Greek words: _gaster_, stomach; _mycetes_,
fungus. We have already seen that, in the group, Hymenomycetes, the
spore-bearing surface is exposed as in the common mushroom or in the
pore-bearing varieties, but in the Gastromycetes the hymenium is
inclosed in the rind or peridium. The word peridium comes from _peridio_
(I wrap around); because the peridium entirely envelops the
spore-bearing portion, which, in due time, sheds the inclosed spores
that have been formed inside the basidia and spicules, as will be seen
in Figure 2. The cavity within the peridium consists of two parts: the
threaded part, called the capillitium, which can be seen in any dried
puffball, and a cellular part, called the gleba, which is the
spore-bearing tissue, composed of minute chambers lined with the
hymenium. The peridium breaks in various ways to permit the spores to
escape. When children pinch a puffball to "see the smoke," as they say,
issue from it, little do they know that they are doing just what the
puffball would have them do, in order that its seeds may be scattered to
the winds.

In case of the Phalloides, the hymenium deliquesces, instead of drying
up.

Berkeley, in his "Outlines," gives the following characterization of
this family: "Hymenium more or less permanently concealed, consisting in
most cases of closely packed cells, of which the fertile ones bear naked
spores in distinct spicules, exposed only by the rupture or decay of the
investing coat or peridium."

The following families will be treated here:

I. Phalloideae--Terrestrial. Hymenium deliquescent.
II. Lycoperdaceae--Cellular at first. Hymenium drying up in a mass of
threads and spores.
III. Sclerodermaceae--Peridium inclosing sporangia.

_Phalloideae. Fr._

Volva universal, the intermediate stratum gelatinous. Hymenium
deliquescent. _Berkeley's Outlines._

The following genera will be represented:

I. Phallus--Pileus free around the stem.
II. Mutinus--Pileus attached to the stem.

_Phallus duplicatus. Bosc._

LACED STINKHORN.

[Illustration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate LV. Figure 446.--