18 Guide to the Mushrooms 



certain varieties of gills melt (deliquesce) 

 at maturity to a black, inky fluid. 



Pores oe Tubes. — The spores in some va- 

 rieties are contained in pores or tubes sit- 

 uated underneath the flesh of the jDileus. 

 These tubes are described in different spe- 

 cies as round (rotund) angular , minute y 

 large, short, long. Like the gill with rela- 

 tion to the stem, they are free, adnate, ad- 

 nexed, deciirrent; sometimes they extend 

 beyond the margin of the cap, and are call- 

 ed emarginate. AYhen the pores curve out- 

 ward from the margin to the stem, the}^ 

 are said to be convex, if flat, plane. 



SpiNEs.^Again the spores are borne on 

 tooth-like projections called spines, which 

 are found beneath the pileus, and in cer- 

 tain other species on the upper end of 

 branches. 



The above form of spore-bearing sur- 

 faces belong to one great family. There 

 are other groups, some of which bear 

 spores on the whole surface of the cap, 

 while others, known as the ''pouch fungi," 

 contain the spores within a skin in a sac- 

 like receptacle. 



