172 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



mycologists. Tulasne l studied its life-history and made the 

 discovery (since confirmed by Brefeld 2 ) 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 basidiospores. 

 The orange fruit-bodies were originally described as Dacryomyces 

 stillatus Nees and the yellow fruit-bodies as Dacryomyces deli- 

 quescens Duby ; and this erroneous division of one species into 

 two is still generally retained in systematic handbooks. To clear 

 up the confusion which has thus arisen, I shall now re-describe 

 Dacryomyces deliquescens from my own observations. 3 



The orange fruit-bodies (Figs. 59, o, and 60, E, F) are rounded 

 or hemispherical, 1-4 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 some- 

 what wrinkled into folds at the surface especially where two or 

 more fruit-bodies have anastomosed during development, 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 imbibi- 

 tion and regain their former size and colour. There are few other 

 fruit-bodies so dependent on atmospheric 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 

 often appear on the surface of wood in groups by themselves. 



1 L. R. Tulasne, " Observations sur 1'organisation des Tremellinees," Ann. 

 des sci. nat., Bot., T. XIX, 1853, p. 211. 



2 O. Brefeld, Untersuchungen, Leipzig, 1888, pp. 141-152. 



3 This account of Dacryomyces deliquescens, except for the addition of illustra- 

 tions, is identical with a paper called " The Basidial and Oidial Fruit-bodies of 

 Dacryomyces deliquescens " which I published in Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc., vol. vii, 

 1922, pp. 226-230. 



