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TASMANIAN HYMENOGASTRACEIE. 



By L. Rodway, C.M.G., 

 Government Botanist. 



(Read Gth November, 1923.) 



In the year 11)11 I had the honour of reading to the 

 Society a paper of a similar title. Since then, there have 

 arisen reasons for additions and alterations. Our list of 

 these forms is now so large that there appears little prospect 

 that new specie? will come to light, wherefore the present 

 appears to be a suitable time to revise the family. 



The Hymenogasters are small underground tubers which 

 produce their spores on basidia, generally 2, sometimes 4 on 

 each basidium. The characteristic of the family is that the 

 gleba does not break down into a mass of spores and ^bres 

 as in allied tubers, such as Mesophellia, Scleroderma, Diplo- 

 derma, Lycoperdon, and Geaster, but remains as a series of 

 contorted tubes or spaces without change at maturity, till 

 broken up by decay or eaten by an animal. The genus Seco- 

 tium, however, is intermediate between the Hymenogasters 

 and the Agarics. Formed underground it tends to emerge at 

 maturity, and has a more or less developed sterile portion, 

 often piercing through the gleba to the apex, and the tramal 

 plates approach the appearance of distorted gills. Some 

 plants may equally well be placed in one group or the other. 



Of the Hymenogastracea;, we have in Tasmania six 

 genera of more or less artificial grouping. Three of these 

 have spores longer than broad, namely: — 



H ymenogaster, with a fleshy gleba and rooting at the 



base. 

 Rhizopogov, with a fleshy gleba and .strands of mycelium 



marking the surface. 



Hysternngium, with a gelatinous gleba, and thick peeling 

 peridium. 



The other three have spherical spores: — 

 Octai'iana, an apparent peridium, and a sterile ba.-.e. 

 Hydnangium, an apparent peridium, and no sterile rase. 

 Gymnomyccx, no appreciable peridium, nor sterile b-ise 



