Tremellaceee 



Sub-Family AuriculariesBc 



HIRNE'OLA Fr. 



Hirnea, a small jug. 



Hirneoia. Gelatinous, rather cartilaginous, soft and tremulous when moist, but 

 not distended with jelly, horny when dry, becoming somewhat cartila- 

 ginous when moistened. The hard skin forming the hymenium, which 

 covers the cup-shaped cavity and is of a different color, can be sepa- 

 rated entire after a thorough soaking in water. Sporopliores (spore- 

 bearing processes) not involved in jelly. Spores oblong, curved. Fries. 

 A very peculiar and distinct genus separated from the neighboring 

 genera by its disk-like, somewhat cup-shaped cavity and by its not be- 

 ing distended with jelly. 



(Plate CXLIII.) 



H. auri'cilla-Jude'a (Linn.) Berk. Jew's ear. 1-4 in. across, thin, 



and flexible when moist, hard when dry, 

 date-brown or blackish. HymenilUfl veno- 

 so-plicate (vein-plaited), forming irregu- 

 lar depressions such as are in the ear, yel- 

 lowish-gray or grayish beneath and hairy. 

 The large depressions or corrugations 

 branch from smaller ones near the center of 

 the plant. 



Spores 20-25x7-9/01 Massee. 

 H. auricula-Judea is not very particular 

 in the trees it patronizes. Elm, maple, 

 hickory, balsam-fir,, spruce, alder bear it. 

 When the plant grows on upright timber it 

 usually turns upward. It is not generally 

 reported in the United States. 



Ohio, Maryland, Miss Banning; Indi- 

 ana, H. I. Miller; New York, Peck; New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Mc- 



Jlvaine. Extensively used in China, where eating it probably ante- 

 dates all European records by several thousand years. It is brought 

 there dried from Tahiti in great quantities and made into soup. 



The writer has found and eaten several specimens of it. It is not as 

 tender as other gelatinous species, but it is an oddity that pleases. 



528 



HlRNEOLA AURICULA-JUDEA. 



A.bout two-thirds nat. size. 



