I 7 4 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



upon them or which are gradually changing into red fruit-bodies. 1 

 The reason for these variations in the distribution of the two kinds 

 of fruit-body under natural conditions is not yet understood, but 

 the production of one kind of fruit-body rather than another 

 doubtless depends on the physiological condition possibly the 

 nuclear state of the underlying mycelium. 2 



An orange fruit-body (Figs. 59 and 60) has a gelatinous matrix 

 derived from the swollen outer confluent hyphal walls, and this 

 matrix, while firm toward its centre, is more and more readily 

 deliquescent in wet weather as one passes toward its periphery. 

 A fruit-body consists of two parts an inner, firmer, paler core 

 attached to the substratum, and an outer, more softly gelatinous, 

 thick, bright orange, exterior coating. The core contains pale, 

 thin, branched, anastomosing hyphae which run toward the 

 periphery of the fruit-body and there thicken and give rise to 

 branched chains of pale orange oidia (Fig. 60, E). Thus the thick 

 orange outer coating of the fruit-body comes to be made up of 

 oidia which are embedded in very soft jelly, and its colour is entirely 

 due to the colour of the oidia. The oidia consist of one or two 

 cells and show all stages of detachment from one another. Those 

 on the very exterior of the fruit-body sometimes produce tiny 

 conidia which project into the air. When rain comes, the outer 

 part of the orange oidial zone deliquesces, i.e. the jelly absorbs 

 so much water that it becomes liquid and flows. Thus during 

 rain a large number of the outer oidia are washed away from the 

 fruit-body and become dispersed. However, the production of 

 oidia by the hyphae of the core is long continued so that new oidia 

 gradually take the place of those previously washed away. It 

 thus appears that the orange fruit-bodies are specialised for pro- 

 ducing oidia and do not as a rule give rise to any basidiospores. 



A yellow fruit-body, like a red one, has a softly gelatinous 

 matrix derived from the swollen outer confluent hyphal walls. 

 This matrix contains and envelops slender, branching, anastomosing 

 hyphae which, toward the periphery of the fruit-body, branch 



1 L. R. Tulasne, foe. cit., pp. 216-218, PI. 13, fig. 2. 



2 Cj. P. A. Dangeard, " Memoire sur la reproduction sexuelle des Basidio- 

 mycetes," Le Botaniste, T. IV, 1895, pp. 136-143. 



