Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Tremellini. 



Plate XXVII. 



TREMELLA MESENTERIC A, i^.^ 



Orange Tremella. 



Gen. CJiar. Receptacle various in form, of a more or less gelatinous substance, homogeneous, the hymeuium 

 extended over every part of the external siuface. 



Spec. Char. Tremella mesenterica. Rather tough, twisted, lobcd, and plicate ; orange-yellow. 

 Tremella mesenterica, Ret:., Fries, Berk., With., Grev., Bull. 

 Hah. On decaying branches, sticks, &c., common. 



Translucent and jelly-like, tliis pretty Tremella tas yet a firm texture, and does not melt between the 

 fingers, nor smear them, as from its apparent viscosity a stranger to it might suppose would be tlie case ; 

 it is, in fact, gelatinous matter enclosed in a bag, variously puckered and drawn in ; the fi'uit-bearing 

 membrane being external, and carried down into all the crannies and plaits of the tremulous mass wliich 

 sustains it. It forms minute paUid sacs beneath the bark of stakes, &c., and might at first be taken for the 

 juices of the wood inspissated on oozing out ; these small bodies ara'produced in Hues, running along some 

 particular fissure of the woody fibre, pusliing off its cuticle, and then freely expanding into the elegant 

 Orange Tremella ; one or two only, of what may be considered perfect plants, having taken the lead, keep it, 

 but a row of immature ones may generally be found following in their train, if we strip off the loose bark 

 which screens them. 



Let us examine this espaher stake ; the fulness of creative energy cannot be better exemplified. We 

 will reckon how many species of flomisliing existence replace the life of the sapling oak, for such it was, 

 cut from the cop]jice. Firstly, then, our showy Orange Tremella, wliich instantly strikes the eye, occupies 

 more than one position, the bark of the wood being roUed back to give it place. Secondly, lower down the 

 beautifully banded velvety tUes of Thelephora versicolor occupy a place. "I see nothing else — yes ! here, 

 coming tlu-ough the earth, are some black stags' -horn-like substances, with snowy tips, very pretty, but are 

 they a Pungus ? " They are, — Spharia Hj/poxi/lon, a pecnhar and easily recognized plant. " But they do 

 not belong to the stake." PuU it up ; you see they grow from it, a short distance below the surface of the 

 soil, and now that the wood is nearer to the eye it will discover something more, for tliat prevalent grey hue 

 of the bark, is a close crust of minute circular discs fiUed with a brown-yellow substance, hke tiny cheese- 

 cakes; these are the shields containing the fructification of Lecanora su/jfiisca, one of the extensive Lichen 

 family. Here are small black bodies, looking like the dung of some little insect, but in reality another kind 

 of Lichen, Lecidea elaochroma. The black patches which replace the cuticle of the wood here and there. 



