ate to the vermiform body a special vital energy, which is
immediately directed towards the production of a somewhat filamentous
tissue, on which the hymenium is at a later period developed. This
"vermiform body" of M. Woronin has since come to be recognized under
the name of "scolecite."

Tulasne observes that this "scolecite" or ringed body can be readily
isolated in _Ascobolus furfuraceus_. When the young receptacles are
still spherical and white, and have not attained a diameter exceeding
the one-twentieth of a millimetre, it is sufficient to compress them
slightly in order to rupture them at the summit and expel the
"scolecite." This occupies the centre of the little sphere, and is
formed of from six to eight cells, curved in the shape of a comma.

In _Peziza melanoloma_, A. and S., the same observer succeeded still
better in his searches after the scolecite, which he remarks is in
this species most certainly a lateral branch of the filaments of the
mycelium. This branch is isolated, simple, or forked at a short
distance from its base, and in diameter generally exceeding that of
the filament which bears it. This branch is soon arcuate or bent, and
often elongated in describing a spiral, the irregular turns of which
are lax or compressed. At the same time its interior, at first
continuous, becomes divided by transverse septa into eight or ten or
more cells. Sometimes this special branch terminates in a crozier
shape, which is involved in the bent part of another crozier which
terminates a neighbouring filament. In other cases the growing branch
is connected, by its extremity, with that of a hooked branch. These
contacts, however, did not appear to Tulasne to be so much normal as
accidental. But of the importance of the ringed body, or "scolecite,"
there was no room for doubt, as being the certain and habitual
rudiment of the fertile cup. In fact, inferior cells are produced from
the flexuous filaments which creep about its surface, cover and
surround it on all sides, while joining themselves to each other. At
first continuous, then septate, these cells by their union constitute
a cellular tissue, which increases little by little until the
scolecite is so closely enveloped that only its superior extremity can
be seen. These cellular masses attain a considerable volume before the
hymenium begins to show itself in a depression of their summit. So
long as their smallness permits of their being seen in the field of
the