Phylum Inophyta [151 



least, they are sterile basidia and serve to hold apart the ridges bearing the hymenium. 

 Other microscopic features are setae, similar to cystidia but hard, dark, and pointed; 

 slender hairs called paraphyses; latex ducts; and crystalline inclusions. 



There are some fifteen thousand species. The following famiHes are for the most 

 part the conventionally accepted ones. 



Family 1. Exobasidiacea [Exobasidiaceae] Hennings in Engler and Prantl Nat. 

 Pflanzenfam. I Teil, Abt. 1**: 103 (1900). The basidia directly on the mycelium. A 

 sniall group, mostly parasitic on plants. Exohasidium. 



Family 2. Thelephoracea [Thelephoraceae] (Saccardo) Hennings (1900). Order 

 Thelephorei Fries Hymen. Eur. 1 ( 1874) . FamHy Thelephorei Winter ( 1884) . Thele- 

 phoraceae Saccardo Sylloge 8: xiii (1889). Fruits of various form, gelatinous, fleshy 

 or leathery, the hymenium covering the surface generally except where it faces up- 

 ward. Corticium, saprophytic, the fruit a mere appressed layer; Stereum, leathery 

 shelf-like extensions from decaying sticks and logs: these genera seem to lead into 

 Lnmily Polyporacea. Cora, a tropical variant of Stereum, is the only lichen-forming 

 basidiomycete. Thelephora, Craterellus, the fruits club-, funnel-, or cup-like. 



Family 3. Clavariacea [Clavariaceae] (Saccardo) Hennings (1900). Order 

 Clavariei Fries (1874). Family Clavariei Winter (1884). Clavariaceae Saccardo 

 (1889). Fruits fleshy, club-like or branched; stag-horn fungi. Clavaria, generally 

 edible. 



Family 4. Hydnacea [Hydnaceae] (Saccardo) Hennings (1900). Order Hydnei 

 Fries (1874). Family //yi/n^i Winter (1884). Hydnaceae Saccardo (1889). Hymen- 

 ium on the surface of downward-pointing teeth. Fruits assigned to the genus Hydnum 

 may be massive or variously branched or mushroom-shaped, leathery or fleshy; the 

 fleshy examples are edible. Fruits of Irpex are little leathery brackets projecting from 

 sticks and logs, distinguished from Stereum or Polystictus by the masses of fine teeth 

 projecting below. 



Family 5. Polyporacea [Polyporaceae] (Saccardo) Hennings (1900). Order Poly- 

 poreiYries (1874). Family Polyporei Winter (1884). Polyporaceae Saccardo (1889). 

 The hymenium lining vertical tubes open below. These are mostly woody or leathery 

 shelf fungi, mostly saprophytic on wood, numerous and varied in detail. Cooke ( 1940) 

 recognized forty-six genera in North America. Polyporus, Fames, Polystictus. In Dac- 

 dalea, the pores are not cylinders but slits; this genus leads into Lenzites, in which the 

 hymenium is borne on radiating plates, and which is conventionally stationed in 

 Agaricacea. Boletus has stout fleshy mushroom-shaped fruits, yellow to brown, turn- 

 ing green when bruised. These fruits are unattractive, but some species are eaten; 

 others are supposed to be poisonous. 



Family 6. Agaricacea [Agaricaceae] Cohn in Hedwigia 11: 17 (1872). Order 

 Agaricini Fries (1874). Family Agaricini Winter (1884). The hymenium on vertical 

 plates, radiating from a center, called gills. 



These are the Fungi whose fruits are called mushrooms or toadstools. The fruits 

 are mostly mushroom-shaped, sometimes shelf-like; the texture is usually fleshy, vary- 

 ing to leathery on the one hand, and on the other to deliquescent, i.e., becoming 

 converted after maturity into black fluid. There has been much study of the develop- 

 ment of the fruits (Levine (1922) and Hein (1930) give extensive bibliographies). 

 This occurs in any of several different fashions, leading to recognizable differences in 

 the mature structure. For the identification of agarics, many mushroom books are 

 available. Any interested person, noting the details of structure which result from 

 the different courses of development, together with the color of the spores (of one 



