iar fungi belong to these
classes--such as Puff-balls, Morels, and Helvellas.

The first class, called the Gasteromycetes, or Stomach fungi, matures
its spores on the inside of the plant. The distinction between this
class and that of the Membrane fungi, which ripens its spores on the
outside, may be more readily understood by one familiar with the
structure of the fig, whose flowers are situated on the interior of its
pear-shaped, hollow axis, which is the fruit.

We will divide the Stomach fungi into four orders--1, the thick-skinned
fungi (Sclerodermae); 2, the Bird's-nest fungi (Nidulariae); 3, the
Puff-balls (Lycoperdons); 4, the Stink horns (Phalloidae.)

ORDER 1. SCLERODERMAE, THE THICK-SKINNED FUNGI.

Our attention will be confined to only one genus, and, indeed, one
species of this family. We often see in our walks what at a first glance
look like potatoes lying along the road, and the suggestion arises that
some careless boy has been losing potatoes from his basket on his way
home from the country store. We stoop to pick them up, and find them
rooted to the ground and covered with warts and scales. We cut them open
and find them a purplish-black color inside. It is a mass of closely
packed unripe spores. In a few days the upper part of the outside
covering decays, bursts open, and the ripe spores escape. This is called
the common hard-rind fungus, or Scleroderma vulgare.

ORDER 2. NIDULARIAE, THE BIRD'S-NEST FUNGI.

This is again divided into three genera. The Crucible (crucibulum), the
Cup (Cyathus), the Bird's-nest proper (Nidularia.)

We often find on a wood-pile or a fallen tree some of the members of the
Bird's-nest family. It is fascinating to examine them in their various
stages of development. First we see a tiny buff knot, cottony in texture
and closely covered; next, another rather larger, with its upper
covering thrown aside, displaying the tiny eggs, which prompts one to
look around for the miniature mother bird; then we find a nest empty
with the fledglings flown. The characteristic that distinguishes the
Bird's-nest fungi from others consists in the fact that the spores are
produced in small envelopes that do not split open, and which are
enclosed in a common covering, called the peridium. One species is known
by the fluted inside of the covering, which is quite beautiful. They are
all small and grow in groups.

ORDER 3. LYCOPERDONS, THE PUFF-BALLS.

The Lycoperdons contain severa