Peridium

“ Peridium depressed-globose, the cuticle deciduous with the mycelium; outer peridium deeply parted, the segments 7–20, strongly hygrometric, acute at the apex; inner peridium depressed-globose, sessile, reticulate, pitted, whitish becoming gray or brownish; the mouth an irregularly lacerate aperture. Threads of the capillitium rather thinner than the spores, hyaline. Spores globose, minutely warted, brown, 8–11μ in. in diameter.
Growing in fields and woods in sandy soil. A very common species found everywhere in the world. Inner peridium 3⁄4-1 in. ”

“ This beautiful species shows a peridium as distinctly double as in [Pg 58] any diderma. The outer peridium is reflexed exactly as in some species of that genus; is yellow without, white within, and withal long persistent. The capillitium of course distinguishes the species instantly as a physarum. By the size of the spores it is distinguished from the species preceding. This being a decisive specific character the synonymy prior to Rostafinski is somewhat uncertain. ”

“ The netted capillitium and the evanescent peridium suggests Arcyria, but there are abundant free tips, and the threads are unmistakably spirally wound, especially in the large, handsome sporangia characteristic of the Mississippi valley. It is a boundary form unquestionably. The stipe is generally very short, about one-tenth the total height; sometimes, when the peridium is more globose, the stipe is proportionally longer. Specimens from Iowa show fructifications several centimetres long and wide. ”

“ Geaster, so called because it has a star-like opening somewhat similar to the genus Geaster.
Peridium subglobose, thick, with a very short stem, or almost—sometimes entirely—sessile; hard, rough, splitting into irregular stellate limbs; frequently well buried in the ground. Inner mass dark-brown or blackish, sometimes with rather a purplish tinge. Some grow quite large with the peridium very thick. My attention was first attracted by some of the peridium shells upon the ground on Cemetery Hill. The plant is quite abundant there from September to December. ”

“ The tissue of the walls (trama) consists often (Lycoperdaceæ) of two kinds of hyphæ, some thin and rich in protoplasm, divided by transverse septa and bearing the basidia; others thicker and thick-walled which do not dissolve like the former on the ripening of the spores, but continue to grow and form a woolly, elastic mass, the capillitium, which may be regarded as highly developed paraphyses. The peridium may be either single or double, and presents many variations in its structure and dehiscence. The mycelium is generally a number of string-like strands, living in soils rich in humus. ”

“ The cortex is covered with long white spines, converging at the apex, as will be seen in Figure 463. The spines soon fall from the upper part of the peridium, leaving the inner peridium with a smooth purplish-brown surface, often slightly scarred by the base of the spine. The subgleba occupies at least a third of the peridium. The spores and the capillitium are at first olivaceous, then brownish-purple, the spores rough and minutely warted. The plant is one to two inches in diameter. It is found in low, rich ground, in fields and wood margins. Only young and fresh plants are good. ”

“ The distinction between the upper and lower peridium would suggest Craterium, but the internal structure is not at all Craterium-like. The capillitium is typically of Physarum. The color suggests P. leucophaeum violascens Rost. From this species it is at once distinguished by its much longer sporangia, larger and rougher spores.
Mexico; C. L. Smith: Sure to be again collected once that unhappy country shall again open its forests to research. ”

“ The whole structure is developed as a smooth white ball beneath the soil. But, once the spores are ripe, the outermost peridium splits open at the top, its lobes spring backward and outward, giving room for the second covering to burst in similar fashion. The lobes of the second, however, by recurving, hoist the entire inner structure out of the ground and up into the air, where the inner peridium, enthroned thus upon springing arches, groined by no human hand, opens at tip a purse-like mouth, and suffers the spores slowly to escape, to sail on unknown journeys with the passing breeze. ”

“ Distinguished by the thin, almost smooth peridium, and the yellow tramal walls. Massee.
West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. On ground under trees. June to November. McIlvaine.
Not rough like S. vulgare and S. verrucosum, nor as solid. Same habit, same edible qualities when young. It is not good after it begins to change color.
S. verruco ́sum Pers.—verrucosus, covered with warts (verrucœ) . Peridium thin above, ochraceous or dingy brown, covered with minute warts, subglobose, continued downward as a more or less elongated stem-like base. Spores umber in the mass; trama whitish. ”

“ Sporangia gregarious, sessile, stipitate, or even plasmodiocarpous; when stipitate, depressed, varying at times to irregular reniform in the same colony; globose, the peridium strongly calcareous, cinereous-white; stipe variable, generally tapering upward, always distinctly deeply plicate-furrowed throughout, in color dark, opaque, sometimes touched with white or gray; capillitium abundant, the white lime-knots, varying in size and shape, connected by rather long hyaline threads, with here and there an empty node ”

“ In mature specimens the peridium has often entirely disappeared, its only trace, a collar, more or less distinct, around the stipe, marking the beginning of the columella. Nevertheless the peridium is far more persistent than in any comatricha, and shows in yet greater brilliancy the wondrous metallic tints and iridescence of Comatricha and Diachaea. Older authors, so far as can be seen, distributed the species between Physarum and Stemonitis.
Key to the Species of Lamproderma
1. Lamproderma physaroides (Alb. & Schw.) Rost. ”

“ Sporangia, in typical forms, gregarious, globose or depressed-globose, gray or snow-white, stipitate; the peridium a thin iridescent membrane covered more or less richly with minute crystals of lime; the stipe when present, snow-white, fluted or channelled, stout, even; columella white, conspicuous; hypothallus usually small or obsolete; capillitium of delicate branching threads, usually colorless or pallid, sometimes with conspicuous calyciform thickenings; spores violaceous, minutely warted or spinulose, 8–10 μ. ”

“ Fleshy layer closely attached, very light in color, usually smooth on the limb of the exoperidium but cracked on the segments. Pedicel short but distinct. The inner peridium ovoid, one-fourth to one-half inch in diameter; white to pale-brown, sometimes almost black. Mouth lifted on a slight cone, lip bordered with a hair-like fringe; columella slender, as are also the threads. Spores brown, globe-shaped, and minutely warted. Found in the summer and early fall.
Nature seems to give it the power to lift up the spore-bearing body, the better to eject its spores to the wind. ”

“ A most common species, on rotten wood everywhere, especially in forests. Recognized generally at sight by its color and fasciculate habit. The peridium shows a tendency, often, to circumscissile dehiscence, and persists long after the contents have been dissipated, in this condition suggesting the name applied by Batsch, vesparium, wasp-nest. The capillitium is remarkably spinescent, the branching of the threads, rare. Rostafinski describes the spores as smooth; they seem to be uniformly distinctly warted. The plasmodium is deep red, and a plasmodiocarpous fructification occasionally appears. ”

“ Later, students of the specimens preserved by Mr. Phillips, concur that we have to do not with a diderma, but with a craterium, Lister, or physarum, Massee. There seems no reason why we should not respect the decision of Massee, whose description is here quoted in form somewhat abridged. The peridium is about as double as in the many physarums, not more so; the inner membrane so delicate as only occasionally to be revealed except to scrutiny most searching. But the appearance as a whole is as of some brown diderma; only the calcareous capillitium abides to prevent mistaken reference. ”

“ Sporangia small, about 1 mm. high when unexpanded, crowded in clusters of varying size, dull red or brownish, stipitate; the peridium evanescent except the cup; stipe very short, concolorous, plicate as the cup, or both smooth and unmarked; capillitium centrally attached, slowly expanded, open-meshed, dense, the threads even, 5–6 μ wide, expanded in globose, spinulose, or papillate-reticulate nodules, especially at points of intersection, marked everywhere by close-set, transverse, sharp-edged ridges, which encircle the thread and show no trace of spiral arrangement ”

“ The capillitium is in some specimens particularly, of the Physarum type; in others, like that of Badhamia. There are accordingly species that receive at the hands of different authors diverse generic reference as one feature or another in the structure is emphasized in the different cases. It is granted that it is hard to draw the line sometimes between forms in which the dehiscence is irregularly circumscissile and those in which the wall breaks without any regularity whatever, since, in all, the breaking up of the peridium usually begins at the top. ”

“ A few grow upon wood. The peridium is of dense structure, usually globose 569and of considerable thickness. It commonly consists of two layers. These form the sac holding the spore-bearing structure, which is called the gleba. The gleba consists of innumerable chambers or cells, curved and branched, and only to be distinguished by magnifying. The primary structure is retained in some species throughout the life of the plants, excepting changes due to growth and maturing, or in others these cells or chambers are large and few, and form distinct peridiola, which contain the spores. ”

“ Sporangia distinct, stipitate; the peridium simple evanescent above as in Arcyria; capillitium centrally attached, freely branched, the threads within very slender, without broad, anastomosing to form a dense peripheral network, and everywhere extended to form short, free, often hamate tips. A single species,—
1. ”

“ They may occur singly or be combined into a net, they may be terete or flat, attached to the peridial wall or free, simple or adorned with bands or spires and knobs in every variety, uniform or profusely knotted and thickened at intervals, and burdened with calcic particles. In many cases, the capillitium contributes materially to the dispersal of the spores; in others, it doubtless contributes mechanically to the support of the peridial wall, and renders so far persistent the delicate sporangium. ”

“ Turner to examine it in the unripe capsule: in this state the cavity of the operculum was found completely filled with a cellular pulp, similar to that composing the columella, of which it appeared evidently to be a continuation; to the surface of this pulp the teeth of the peristomium were closely pressed, but did not adhere: by degrees the pulp dries up, and in the ripe capsule leaves only the membrane or tympanum of an inorganic appearance, and firmly cohering with the teeth by the inner side of their apices. ”

“ With a tuft of hairs or hair-like branches. Perfect. Flowers with both stamens and pistils. Perfoliate. Leaves so clasping the stem as to appear as if pierced by it. Perianth. The modified floral leaves (sepals or petals) , regarded collectively. Pericarp. The wall of the fruit, or seed-vessel. Perigynium. The utricle enclosing the ovary or achene in the genus Carex. Perigynous. Borne on the perianth, around the ovary. Peripheral. Pertaining to the periphery. Persistent. Organs remaining attached to those bearing them after the growing period. Petal. One of the leaves of the corolla. Petaloid. ”

“ Some of the departures from the Ateles type presented by Cercopithecus become still better developed in the human subject, where the adhesion of the ascending colon and the obliteration of the apposed serous surfaces of ascending mesocolon and parietal peritoneum is normally complete, even if the cæcum remains entirely free, or only adheres to the iliac parietal peritoneum in the proximal part of its dorsal surface. ”

“ Pteridium has linear sori situated on a marginal vascular bundle, covered by two linear basal indusia, of which the outer is bent over like the edge of a leaf.—P. aquilinum (Bracken) has a wide-spreading rhizome with large alternate leaves, placed on opposite sides, at some distance apart. Only one leaf is developed from each branch every year.
Fig. 211.—Portions of leaves with sori. A Polypodium. B Aspidium. C Pteridium. D A sporangium of one of the Polypodiaceæ: r the annulus; s spores. ”

“ Structure of the Axis.— Epidermis consists of polygonal cells with outer walls greatly thickened and convexly arched outwards. Inner walls are thin. The stomata are like those on the leaf. Besides stomata, lenticels are found in S. persica. The primary cortex is composed on its outer side of chlorenchyma and on the inner side of a tissue of thin-walled colourless cells probably aqueous.
The pericycle is formed of radially elongated large groups of stone-cells separated by cortical aqueous cells. The pericycle presents a dumb-bell shaped appearance corresponding with that of the wood cylinder. ”

“ Rather weak, 1° high or less; leaves flat and firm, persisting through the winter, at least twice longer than the culm; a sheathing purple scale at the base of the spike; staminate spike about 1 ́ long, clavate in anthesis, the purple scales ending in a very short and blunt whitish tip; pistillate spike narrower and mostly longer, the scales more abruptly contracted into a colored cusp and at length deciduous; perigynium obovate, much contracted below into a stipe-like base, very strongly nerved, entirely pointless, hairy above, covered by the scale. ”