y 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.

[Illustration: Plate H.
Gasteromycetes.
Phalloideae.
Figs. 1 to 6, Ithyphallus impudicus, Linn. "Foetid Mushroom."
Fig. 7, Clathrus cancellatus, Fr. "Latticed Mushroom."
Unwholesome.]

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