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to a Tremella. The only difference (a very unimportant one) is 

 that the prolongation of the apex of each of the lobes of the 

 sporophores is considerably shorter than is usually the case in 

 Tremella. It will thus be seen that the plant is exactly inter- 

 mediate between the Orders Hydnei and Tremellini, forming a 

 stepping stone from one to the other. M. Tulasne observes, that 

 of all the fungi composing Fries's Class Hymenomycetes the 

 Tremellini are least understood. Their gelatinous nature, and the 

 various forms they assume, rendering their study particularly 

 difficult. Leveillier found that they are true members of the 

 Hymenomycetes (basidiospores Lev.) and that their reproductive 

 bodies are produced upon hjnuenial cells, either in twos, as in 

 Dacrymyces, or solitary, as in Tremella, and Exidia. M. Tulasne 

 has carried their history much further, or rather has shown it a 

 in a light altogether new. He says; Tremella mesenterica, our 

 common, yellow, species, is composed of a mass of colourless 

 mucilage, without distinguishable structure, in which variously 

 branched, anastomosing, threads are immersed. Towards the 

 outer surface these threads give origin to globose cells filled with 

 plastic matter, to which the fungus owes its colour. When mature, 

 these globose cells grow out at their summit into two, three, or 

 four distinct, continuous, tubes which are attenuated into fine 

 points ; on these points a small cell is produced, which is the fruit, 

 or spore. The spores fall off, and form a white dust on the 

 Tremella, or on the bark from which it grows. The Tremellini 

 differ from other Hymenomycetes in several respects, but especially 

 in the division of their basidia into two, three, or four equal parts 

 by vertical septa, which precedes the formation of sporiferous 

 spicules; the parts of the basidia often become free from one 

 another ; such abnormal basidia generally occur beneath the sur- 

 face occupied by the ordinary fertile cells in the mucous substance 

 of the Tremella. In addition to this mode of fruit formation the 

 Tremellini possess another mode of propagating themselves ; viz., 

 a system of threads producing innumerable bodies called by 

 Tulasne spermatia ; these threads are sometimes mixed with those 

 producing basidia, at other times they occupy exclusively certain 

 parts of the fungus, fi-equently the lower lobes. Such parts are 



