for beginners, and we would not venture to enter further into the
subject were it not that some of the most familiar 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 (Sclerodermæ); 2, the Bird’s-nest fungi (Nidulariæ); 3, the
Puff-balls (Lycoperdons); 4, the Stink horns (Phalloidæ.)


ORDER 1. SCLERODERMÆ, 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.