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.
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