324 PART IV. — VEGETABLE TAXONOMY. 



bers compactly arranged, sometimes with intervening sterile 

 filaments called paraphyses, on or in a definite part of the spo- 

 rocarp, constituting the hymenium. The sporocarp is usually 

 of considerable size, forming much the most conspicuous part of 

 the plant, the vegetative mycelium, in fact, being usually con- 

 cealed in the substratum. The spores in the hymenium all 

 ripen about the same time, and then the sporocarp usually withers 

 away or decays. 



It was formerly supposed that the development of a sporo- 

 carp was preceded by a fertilizing process, as in most of the 

 Ascomycetes, but sexual organs have been searched for in vain, 

 and there now exists no reasonable doubt that sexuality has 

 disappeared, as we have found it has done from some species of 

 the lower groups. 



The Gelatinous Fungi, the Puff-balls, and most of the species 

 popularly known as Toadstools and Mushrooms belong here. 

 They are classified scientifically according to the shape of the 

 sporocarp, the position and character of the hymenium, etc. 

 There is one species, Exobasidium vaccinii, which shows a very 

 simple fructification, consisting of compactly arranged basidia 

 forming a hymenium directly on the surface of the organs which 

 it attacks. The plant is a parasite on the leaves and stems of 

 Vaccinum vitis-idaea. The Basidiomycetes are distributed into 

 three groups : The Tremellinece, the Gasteromycetes and the 

 Hymenomycetes. 



The Tremellineae have a soft or gelatinous fructifica- 

 tion, and frequently no very definite shape, forming thickish 

 wavy or furrowed masses on the surface of objects on which 

 the mycelium feeds, generally on rotten wood. When the 

 spores are ripe, they give to the surface a powdery appearance. 

 The so-called "Jew's-Ear" (Exidia Auricula Judge), a toughish, 

 gelatinous, reddish-brown Fungus, shaped something like a 

 human ear, belongs to this group. It grows parasitically upon 

 the Elder and Elm. Other species are ccramon on decaying 

 wood. 



The Gasteromycetes are distinguished from the rest by the 

 fact that the hymenium is enclosed within the body of the sporo- 

 carp. The latter possesses two coats, the outer and inner peri- 

 derm, and the interior is variously subdivided into compartments, 



