Pileate and Clavate Tribes of Hymenomycetous Fungi. 95 



Phlebia vaga, Fr., has quaternate sporidia. 



We have now to inquire what is the arrangement in the 

 clavate Fungi which are clearly very closely related to the 

 Pileati. In point of structure the hymenium is just like that 

 of the pileate species. In Clavaria cristata, Pers., the spores 

 are binary, or occasionally ternary. In Clav. crispula, Fr., ter- 

 nary or quaternary. In Clav. vermicular is, Swartz., binary. 

 Calocera viscosa, Fr., has solitary spores curved like those of 

 some Tremellce. In Typhula gyrans, Fr., the spores are qua- 

 ternate. 



In Geoglossum, Spathularia, and Mitrula it is well known 

 that the reproductive bodies are not spores, but sporidia con- 

 tained in distinct asci. In Geoglossum they are curved and 

 septate. Spathularia has very long and slender sporidia, 

 which are filled with sporidiola, thus approaching very near 

 to Leotia, in which they are cylindrical, containing four glo- 

 bose sporidiola. At present I have not seen perfect sporidia 

 in Mitrula. It is clear then that these genera, which differ 

 so essentially in their fructification, are not properly associated 

 with the clavate Hymenomycetes. 



The essential character of hymenomycetous Fungi appears 

 then to consist in a hymenium composed of closely packed 

 sporophores, which support on spicules a generally determi- 

 nate number of spores. If this be deemed of the importance 

 I am inclined to attribute to it, the elvellaceous Fungi, as also 

 the Cupulati, cannot be included in the same primary division. 

 The Tremellini, on the contrary, appear to me to be true Hy- 

 menomycetes. In Tremella albida the curved spores are 

 superficial, vertical with regard to the hymenium, and seated 

 obliquely upon spicules, almost exactly as in Calocera viscosa. 

 At present I have not had sufficient leisure to examine their 

 structure attentively, and there are some peculiarities in it 

 which I do not understand. The Sclerotiacei I consider an- 

 other tribe of true Hymenomycetes, though very imper- 

 fectly organized. I have stated in the English Flora that I 

 believe the true " ideal notion" of their structure is that of 

 highly condensed Hyphomycetes, which, if the analogy of the 

 spores in Boiryt is be taken into consideration, confirms greatly 

 the present view. The abbreviated flocci of Botrytis carta, 

 Berk., with their two or three spiculee-form branchlets, each 



