182 DB. F. WELWITSCH ON WEST AFBICAtf BOTANY. 



The fructification of the orders Hydnei and Tremellini has 

 hitherto been considered distinct, the hymenium of the former 

 having been supposed to consist (as is doubtless the case in most 

 plants of the order) of oval or cylindrical basidia, each bearing 

 four spicules or steriginata, and each sterigma a spore, as in the 

 Agaricini. 



In the Tremellini, as M. Tulasne has shown*, the structure is 

 totally different. The fruit there consists of a mass of threads 

 imbedded in the jelly of the plant, each thread producing at its 

 apex four cells united together, or, rather, a four-lobed cell, each 

 of the lobes of which gives out from its apex a rather long fila- 

 ment, at the tip of which a spore is produced. 



Upon examining the fructification of Hydnum gelatinoswn, I 

 was surprised to find that, although in its external characters it is 

 a perfect Hydnum, it bears the fruit of a Tremella. If one of the 

 teeth be examined with the microscope, it will be seen to consist 

 of threads, bearing four-lobed sporophores and spores exactly similar 

 to Tremella. As far as I can see, the only difference (a very unim- 

 portant one) is that the prolongation of the apex of each of the 

 lobes of the sporophores is considerably shorter than is usually 

 the case in Tremella. It will thus be seen that the 

 plant is exactly intermediate between the orders 

 Hydnei and Tremellini, forming as it were a stepping- 

 stone from one to the other ; and as this peculiarity 

 has not hitherto been noticed, I have thought it a 

 point of sufficient interest to bring before the notice 

 of the Society. The woodcut represents the fruit 

 in question highly magnified, consisting of a thread 

 crowned by a four-lobed sporophore, each of the four 

 tips of the sporophore being surmounted by a spore. 



Extract from a Letter, addressed to Sir "William J. Hooker, on 

 the Botany of Benguela, Mossamedes, &c, in Western Africa. 

 By Frederick Welwitscii, Esq., M.D., A.L.S. 



[Read Jan. 17th, 1861.] 



S. Paulo de Loando, August 16, 1860. 

 .... My last journey to the southern districts of the province 

 (Benguela, Mossamedes, and Huilla) was at first intended to 



* Ann. dcs Sc Nat. 3 ser. vol. xix. 



