MR. GEORGE MASSEE ON THE THELEPHOBEEX. 121 
solution of potassic hydrate; but the bright blue colour of Corti- 
cium ceruleum is at first intensified, and subsequently completely 
dissolved out of the cell-walls as a bright blue solution, by the 
above reagent. Dilute ammonic hydrate produces the same 
effect. The red colour of Corticium sanguineum is similarly dis- 
solved. In the two last-named species the colour is usually 
most intense near the margin; and when portions of young 
actively growing plants are examined under the microscope, the 
apices of the marginal radiating hyph: are seen to be perfectly 
colourless for a distance of 30-50 u, followed by a deeply coloured 
portion of variable length, yet further back the colour is less 
intense or altogether wanting ; and when placed in an alkaline 
solution, the darkest portion nearest the apex is most resistant, 
the older parts being bleached at once. It is not unusual to 
meet with old specimens of the above species quite colourless in 
the centre, the colouring-matter having been removed by the small 
amount of alkaline matter dissolved in rain or dew. The dis- 
solved colouring-matter sinks into the substratum, which is 
frequently deeply stained for some distance beyond the margin 
of large old plants. These phenomena are more clearly illus- 
trated by such species as Hypochnus rubrocinctus, H. nigromar- 
ginatus, &c., once considered as fungi belonging to the Thele- 
phoreze, but now known to be ascigerous lichens ; nevertheless the 
colouring is confined to the fungal element. 
Laticiferous vessels are present in some species of Stereum and 
Corticium, appearing as irregularly branched, aseptate hyph filled 
with hyaline granular contents, and originate as lateral branches 
from the ordinary septate hy phee of the subiculum. In Corticium 
lactescens latex is abundant, and remains colourless after esca- 
ping from the vessels; but in Stereum sanguinolentum and 
C. rugosum it changes to a dull red when exposed to the air. 
Schönbein has shown* that the change from yellow to deep 
indigo-blue which occurs in Boletus luridus when cut or broken 
is not due to contact with the air, but to another substance in 
the fungus which ozonizes the oxygen of the air; and I find that 
if a perfeetly fresh specimen of Stereum sanguinolentum 1s placed 
for some time in a vessel in which ozone is generated, the entire 
surface of the hymenium becomes dull red, presenting the same 
* Verhandl. d. naturf. Ges. Basel, iii. (1856) p. 339; and in Compt. Rend. 
July 16, 1860, 
