AND THEIR ANALOGUES. 35 
IV. Basidia very analogous to those of the Tremelle have been 
observed by Mr. Fred. Currey in a peculiar Hydnum, scarcely 
less gelatinous than the former, and therefore named by Scopoli 
Hydnum gelatinosum * (see the Proceedings of the Linn. Soc. for 
1860). But this observation does not seem to invalidate the close 
analogy of this fungus with the most genuine Hydna. 
The case is different with two fungi hitherto ascribed to the group 
of the T'helephore, and which are found to possess exactly the 
hymenial structure of the Tremelle. 
We will first mention Corticium incrustans Pers. (Obs. Mycol. 
part i. p. 39. n. 82), which modern authors have placed amongst 
the Thelephore under the names of Thelephora incrustans (Fr. 
Syst. Myc. t. i p. 448; Elench. part i. p. 214) and Thele- 
phora sebacea (Fr. Elench. l. c.; Berk. Outl. of Brit. Fung. 
p. 440, pl.17.fig.6). Itisafungus which grows not unfrequently 
about Versailles in damp and dark woods at the end of summer; 
it creeps upon the earth and clings to its surface, adhering 
to every thing, dead or living; in spreading itself out it clothes 
stones and stems of herbs and shrubs, here and there even rising 
without interior supports in little columns or rough clavules, free 
or partly soldered to one another, thick and glabrous, or ending 
in bristling tufts, whence it has received the names of Clavaria 
laciniata Pers. (in herb. Thuill.) and Thelephora clavarioides 
Thuill. (in suopte herb.). The fertile hymeniwm of this singu- 
lar vegetable is to be found chiefly where it becomes more deeply 
yellow or yellowish, and where its surface is more smooth; else- 
where the filamentous network of which it is composed is alone 
usually found. The threads of its tissue are very ramified, thin, 
and seldom provided with partitions ; the hymeniwm is formed from 
the terminal cells, which proceed from the ultimate and thinnest 
branches of those threads. The basidia are ovato-globose, as 
in the Tremelle ; they measure about 0'013 millim. one way and 
0:01 millim. the other way; and each one divides, according 
to its length, into two or three equal parts, which extend into as 
many fertile threads or spicules. These are but little divergent, 
and attain a length of 0°015 millim. to 0°03 millim. The spores 
are slightly reniform and simple, scarcely differing in form 
and dimensions from those of Tremella mesenterica Retz. ; and 
they do not much exceed in length the hundredth of a millimetre; 
* See Fries, Syst. Mycol. t. i. p. 407. 
D2 
