b G. MASSEE ON BASIDIOMYCETES. 



abeyance, being simply a tiat surface, except in the genera 

 Craterellus and Cladochrris, where it is slightly wrinkled or 

 furnished with imperfect ridges or crests. None of the species 

 are known to be poisonous, but in certain genera, as Uymmochcete 

 and Peniophora, the hymenium is densely studded with rigid 

 bristles known as metidoids, which appear to protect the hymenial 

 surface from being nibbled by mites, as is often the case in genera 

 not thus protected, as CGrticium and Stereum. About one 

 thousand species are known. Distribution cosmopolitan. 



Htdne^. — As in the Thelephoreae, the species constituting 

 the present family show a sequence from thin, broadly effused 

 expansions, inseparable from the wood or bark on which they 

 grow, through the partly reflexed type, up to the umbrella or 

 mushroom-shaped form having a cap or pileus, fertile on the 

 under surface only, and supported on a centrally placed, distinct 

 stem. The distinctive feature of the present family, viewed 

 from an evolutionary standpoint, consists in introducing a new 

 idea with the object of increasing the area of the hymenium. 

 This idea consisted in covering the spore-bearing portion of the 

 fungus with densely packed, slender teeth, the entire surface of 

 the teeth being fertile, or covered with basidia. In some of the 

 simple, prostrate species, the entire exposed surface of the fungus 

 is covered with teeth or spines not a line long, closely packed 

 and resembling velvet pile ; in others the spines are conical and 

 more scattered ; whereas in some of the larger species the spines 

 vary from half to one and a half inch in length, and are densely 

 crowded. There is a tendency on the part of the species of 

 Radidum and Irj^ex to become tough or woody, and perennial. 

 Some of the species furnish excellent food, amongst which may 

 be included the common British species, Uydniim repandum. 

 None are known to be poisonous. A small family, including 

 about one thousand species. Characteristic of the north 

 temperate zone, and most abundant in the forests of Norway 

 and Sweden. 



Polypore^. — Notwithstanding the large amount of hymenial 

 surface afforded by the spines in the Hydneae, the idea is strictly 

 confined to that family, and in its place we are confronted with 

 an entirely new conception for effecting the same object in the 

 Polyporese, where the hymenium lines the cavities of innumer- 

 able very slender tubes, densely packed side by side and cut off at 



