MR. GEORGE MASSEE ON THE THELEPHORES. 115 
the teleütospore is typical, on germination the germ-tube is an 
extension of the endospore, which either ruptures or passes 
through specialized portions of the exospore, the latter never 
entering into the composition of the germ-tube ; but in the genus 
Podisoma this is not the case, the epispore, in the sense of a 
specialized protective covering, being altogether absent, and the 
germ-tube is a direct extension of the outermost portion, in which 
point it exactly agrees with the origin of sterigmata from basidia 
in the Hymenomycetes. 
THELEPHORE A. 
Morphology —Two types of hyphal structure are met with :— 
(a) Having thin walls with little or no tendency to become gela- 
tinous externally, numerous transverse septa, and usually much 
branched. (5) Walls very thick, with a decided tendeney to 
become gelatinous or mucilaginous outside, aseptate. Transi- 
tional forms connect the two extremes. In genera of low 
organization, as Coniophora, the entire plant is composed of 
hyphee belonging to type (a), and the sporophore, even when dry, 
is felt-like and fibrous in texture, its compactness being due to 
the relative interweaving of the component hyph:», and not to 
their being cemented together by mucilage. In more highly dif- 
ferentiated genera, as Hypolyssus and. Skepperia, hyphe of the 
(B)-type are alone met with, the entire plant becoming cartila- 
ginous or horny when dry, due to hardening of the gelatinous 
substance derived from the cell-walls, and in a transverse section 
presents the structure known as pseudo-parenchyma. In some 
genera, as Thelephora, the two types are present in the same 
plant; but in one genus only in the order under consideration is 
there any approach to the marked differentiation I have else- 
where* described as occurring in certain species belonging to the 
Polyporex, where the (b)-type of hyph are contracted into 
hollow cylinders or symmetrically arranged radiating fan-shaped 
ribs of woody consistency for the purpose of mechanical support, 
and remain as a skeleton after the thin-walled hyphe of the (a)- 
type, which are more directly concerned with reproduction, have 
decayed or been eaten by insects. 
Asarule, the cell-walls remain for along time in a plastic 
condition; and in many instances where branches of the same or 
* Journ. Roy. Micr. Soc. 1887, p. 205. 
