112 M. Montagne on the Podaxinese. 



Cryrophragmium results from the dismembering of the genus 

 Montagnea, founded by Fries, ^ Genera Hymenomycetum/ p. 7, 

 on two fungi which grow on the shores of Maguelone, in the en- 

 virons of Montpeher, one of which had received the name of 

 Agaricus arenarius from M. DeCandolle, the other that oiAgaricus 

 ocreatus from M. DeUle. The continued study which 1 have made 

 of the second of these species, subsequently found near Bona and 

 brought in all stages of evolution by Captain Durieu, Member of 

 the African Commission, has proved to me that these two fungi, 

 although similar and apparently related, do not belong to the 

 same family. A very young individual of Gyrophragmium Du- 

 nalii showed indeed in the clearest manner, that what had been 

 taken for the pileus of an Agaric was the superior half of a pe- 

 ridium, the inferior half of which is represented by an ample 

 volva surrounding the stem, and that the supposed leaflets or 

 lamellae were only processes, or rather partitions emanating from 

 all the points of the pileiform portion of the peridium. The fol- 

 lowing are the characters upon which this curious genus is esta- 

 blished : — 



Receptaculum stipatum. Peridium prime turbinatum, dein medio 

 orbiculatim ruptum superne pileiforme cum stipite centrali ad apicem 

 usque producto, volva ampla (quae nihil aliud nisi pars peridii infe- 

 rior) instructo continuum. Capillitium in dissepimenta contextum 

 lamelliformia subparallela e peridii toto hemisphserio descendentia, a 

 stipite distantia, in piano ramosa, non autem anastomosantia, sinuosa, 

 plicate -crispata adeeque densata ut sibi cohserere videantur, prime 

 lenta olivacea, tandem exarescentia fragilissima, nigra, subtus libera, 

 labyrinthiformia. Flocci liberi nuUi. Sporse globosse, pedicellatae, 

 dissepimentis affixse. Contextus peridii stipitisque fibrosus in disse- 

 pimenta continuatus. Fungi arescentes, persistentes, h^itM Ayarico 

 vel Boleto similes, specie velvati aut annulati, stipitati, in arenosis 

 maritimis Africa berealis et Gallim australis hucusque ebvii. 



The genus Gyrophragmium differs from Polyplocium, Berk., on 

 the one hand by the form and the rigidity of its partitions, and on 

 the other by the absence of free filaments intermixed with the 

 sporules, filaments which are found in the latter genus. Just as 

 in Secotium its sporules are fixed by a short pedicel to the walls of 

 the compartments, but these compartments, which are free in Gy- 

 rophragmium, form a spongy tissue in the other genus by their 

 frequent anastomoses. 



Considered according to the degree of their structure, the ge- 

 nera of the tribe Podaxinea may be arranged as follows : Caulo- 

 glossum, Cycloderma, Podaxon, Secotium, Polyplocium and Gyro- 

 phragmium. As Secotium is the form of transition from Po- 

 daxon to Polyplocium, so the latter evidently constitutes a passage 

 between the first of these genera and Gyrophragmium, I have 



