. Fungi; their nature, influence, and uses;. Fungi. CLASSIFICATION. 69. In the former, the peridium is either single or double, oc- casionally borne on a stem, but usually sessile. In Geaster, the " starry puff-balls," the outer peridium divides into several lobes, which fall back in a stellate manner, and expose the inner peridium, like a ball in the centre. In Polysaccum, the interior is divided into numerous cells, filled with secondary peridia. The mode of spore-production has already been alluded to in our remarks on I/yco- perdon. All the species are large, as compared with tho
. Fungi; their nature, influence, and uses;. Fungi. CLASSIFICATION. 69. In the former, the peridium is either single or double, oc- casionally borne on a stem, but usually sessile. In Geaster, the " starry puff-balls," the outer peridium divides into several lobes, which fall back in a stellate manner, and expose the inner peridium, like a ball in the centre. In Polysaccum, the interior is divided into numerous cells, filled with secondary peridia. The mode of spore-production has already been alluded to in our remarks on I/yco- perdon. All the species are large, as compared with those of the following sub-family, and one species of Lyeoper- don attains an enormous size. One specimen recorded in the " Ga-rdener's Chronicle " was three feet four inches ^ScUrodmna vuigare. ?r. j^ circumference, and weighed nearly tea pounds. In the Myxogastres, the early stage has been tlie subject of much controversy. The gelatinous condition presents phenomena so unlike anything previously recorded in plants, that one learned professor* did not hesitate to propose their exclusion from the vegetable, and recognition in the animal, kingdom as associates of the Gregarines. When mature, the spores and threads so much resemble those of the Trichogastres, and the little plants themselves are so veritably miniature puff- balls, that the theory of their animal nature did not meet with a ready acceptance, and is now virtually abandoned. The cha- racters of the family we have thus briefly reviewed are tersely stated, as—• Hymenium more or less permanently concealed, consisting in most cases of closely-paclced cells, of which the fertile ones bear naked spores on distinct spicules, exposed only hy the rupture or decay of the investing coat or peridium = Gasteromycetes. We come now to the second section of the Sporifera, in which no definite hymenium is present. And here we find also two families, in one of which the dusty spores are the * De Bary, A., " Des Myxomyc
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