226 Transactions British Mycological Soctety. 
THE BASIDIAL AND OIDIAL FRUIT-BODIES 
OF DACRYOMYCES DELIQUESCENS. 
By Professor A. H. R. Buller, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.S.C. 
Dacryomyces deliquescens is a very common fungus in England 
and appears during wet weather upon the surface of dead wood, 
such as old logs, rails, garden seats, gate-posts, etc.; but it was 
imperfectly described by the older systematists and by Massee, 
and its true nature is still misunderstood by many field myco- 
logists. Tulasne* studied its life-history and made the discovery 
(since confirmed by Brefeldt) that it produces two kinds of 
fruit-bodies which can be readily distinguished with the naked 
eye owing to colour differences: (1) orange fruit-bodies, and 
(2) pale yellow fruit-bodies. Both are gelatinous. The orange 
fruit-bodies produce oidia and the yellow fruit-bodies basidio- 
spores. The orange fruit-bodies were originally described as 
Dacryomyces stillatus Nees and the yellow fruit-bodies as 
Dacryomyces deliquescens Duby; and this erroneous division of 
one species into two is still generally retained in systematic 
hand-books. To clear up the confusion which has thus arisen, 
I shall now re-describe Dacryomyces deliquescens from my own 
observations. 
The orange fruit-bodies are small, rounded or hemispherical, 
I—4 mm. in diameter and 1-2 mm. high, occurring in groups of 
more or less isolated individuals in lines along the grain of the 
woody substratum and often on its upper side so that they 
attract the eye. The yellow fruit-bodies are about the same 
size as the red ones, rounded, hemispherical or discoid, often 
somewhat wrinkled into folds at the surface especially where 
two or more fruit-bodies have anastomosed during develop- 
ment, and occurring like the red fruit-bodies in groups of more 
or less isolated individuals in lines along the grain of the woody 
substratum and often on its upper surface. In dry weather both 
the orange and the pale yellow fruit-bodies shrink very greatly, 
owing to loss of water, and become quite inconspicuous and 
difficult to find. When rain comes again, the fruit-bodies rapidly 
absorb water by imbibition and regain their former size and 
colour. There are few other fruit-bodies so dependent on atmo- 
spheric conditions as these. 
In nature, the orange fruit-bodies often appear on the surface 
of wood in groups by themselves. The yellow fruit-bodies also 
* L. R. Tulasne, Observations sur l’organisation des Trémellinées, Ann. des 
sti. nat., Bot., t, Xx} 1853, p. 211. 
t O Brefeld, Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1888, pp. 141-152. 
