ORDER TULASNELLALES 455 



Phlogiotis (Gyrocephalus) has funnel-shaped spore fruits with the 

 hymenium on the outer surface only. Tremella is found in all parts of the 

 world. T. reticulata (Berk.) Farl. forms large white masses of gelatinous 

 leaf-like lobes, the whole mass sometimes being 10 to 12 cm. in diameter. 

 It is considered edible. Other species are usually smaller and some are 

 bright-colored. Other genera less common in the temperate zones or con- 

 fined to the tropical or subtropical regions are among those described 

 below. Patouillardina has the basidia spindle-shaped. The first septum 

 is oblique and in each cell thus formed another septum is produced at 

 right angles to the first one. Because of the shape of the basidium these 

 two septa do not intersect the first septum opposite one another. In 

 Protomerulius the soft fleshy or waxy spore fruit is resupinate and rather 

 thin. Its hymenium is poroid. Protodontia and Protohydnum are waxy or 

 gelatinous and resupinate or stalked, but the hymenium instead of being 

 poroid is borne on downward directed teeth. The earlier name Proto- 

 hydnum must, according to Martin (1948), be used instead of the more 

 familiar but later Tremellodon. In Protohydnum the stalk of the basidium 

 is separated from it by a septum but not so in Protodontia. Heterochaete 

 is somewhat similar, but the blunt teeth are peg-like and pierce the 

 hymenium, not being covered with basidia themselves. Tremellodendron 

 is erect, more often branched, resembling Clavaria or some species of 

 Tremella. Eichleriella {Hirneolina) is cupulate or broadly attached. (Fig. 

 151.) 



The Tremellales must be considered as a group which has developed 

 with more or less parallelism to the Auriculariales. The low, felty or 

 gelatinous waxy crust, bearing basidia on the upper surface, seems to be 

 the most primitive in each order, and from this simple structure have de- 

 veloped the more complex forms of spore fruit. It must be emphasized 

 again that until the life histories have been more fully worked out the true 

 relationships are only a matter of conjecture. The rather frequent occur- 

 rence of conidial production in these orders would hint at relationship to 

 the Ascomyceteae in which conidia are produced abundantly. 



Order Tulasnellales. The fungi making up this order are mostly found 

 on dead wood or on old fungi on which they are saprophytic. The spore 

 fruits are resupinate, gelatinous or dry, usually thin, sometimes being 

 only a slight film-like coating on the substratum. Clamp connections are 

 found on the hyphae of most species but are lacking in some. The char- 

 acteristic feature of the single family, Tulasnellaceae, is the structure and 

 developinent of the basidia. These are typical in the genera Tulasnella 

 and Gloeotulasnella. The genus Ceratohasidium (Rogers, 1935) was tenta- 

 tively placed by Martin (1944) in this family but later (1948) segregated 

 by him in a distinct family Ceratobasidiaceae, assigned to a position 

 close to the Tulasnellaceae. The basidium in all three genera is a holo- 



