ANNALS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



VIII.— On the Fructification of the Pileate and Clavate Tribes 

 of Hymenomycetous Fungi. By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley^ 

 M.A., F.L.S. 



1 N the sixth volume of the New Series of the Annales des Sci- 

 ences Naturelles, p. 336, in the Number dated Dec. 1836, but 

 not published till some months later, M. Montagne has the fol- 

 lowing observation under Gomphus rutilus : e( Elle m'a donne 

 occasion de faire des observations precieuses pour le memoire 

 que j'ai eu Phonneur de lire devant l'Academie des Sciences 

 sous le titre de Recherches anatomiques et physiologiques 

 sur Phymenium des Agaricinees." This attracted special no- 

 tice, as my attention had been directed for some time to the 

 real structure of the hymenium in Agarics, which I had rea- 

 son to believe had been altogether misunderstood. It appeared 

 highly probable that the result of his investigations was in 

 substance the same as that to which I had myself arrived, from 

 a series of observations on the supposed asci of Agarics ; but 

 at the same time I felt that, if this were the case, it would not 

 be useless, in a matter of such difficulty and obscurity, to pub- 

 lish an account of my own perfectly independent researches. 

 I was however desirous before doing so of following up the 

 matter in as many genera as could be procured of Pileate Fungi, 

 and this led to an examination of the Clavate group also, which, 

 from their very close affinity, I could scarcely believe, notwith- 

 standing the received notions of mycologists, to differ essen- 

 tially in organization. The facts which presented themselves 

 appeared to me not only interesting from their novelty, but of 

 such importance, that I considered it expedient, as far as pos- 

 sible, to trace the history of the present state of knowledge 

 on the point in question, and it was curious to observe that 

 the earlier notions were the more correct. 



Since almost the whole of my observations were made, and 

 the greater part of the present memoir drawn up, I have had 



Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol.1. No. 2. April 1838. g 



