THE RECEPTACLE 



35 



woody, contains less moisture, and consequently dries with but 

 little shrinking or change of loriii. 



As the carpophore is souietinics obsolete in the ILjmcno- 

 mycetcs, so also is the receptacle or pileus reduced to a simple 

 stratum, which intervenes between the mycelium and the 

 spore- bearing suriace. These are undoubtedly rudimentary 

 forms, but they are very numerous, sometimes constituting 

 entire genera, as in Poria, Co7iiophora, Corticium, etc., besides 

 numerous species in other genera. For the most part a thin 

 tibrous stratum, difl'erentiated from the fibres of the mycelium, 

 forms, and supports the hymenium. Possibly the old genus 

 Ozonium consists entirely of these suppressed pilei, which never 

 form a hymenium. The supporting stratum is very peculiar 

 in Astcrosfroma, where the hyphae are stellate, and in Thele- 

 phora pcdiccUata they assume a dendritic form. It is not 

 uncommon to find specimens of Corticium in which the 

 hymenium is only in patches, or, in some cases, never formed at 

 all, so that the whole Fungus remains in the vegetative stage, 

 that is to say, mycelium, and a sterile fibrous stratum to 

 represent suppressed carpophore and atrophied receptacle. 



The second type is deficient in any appreciable carpophore 

 or stem, and con- 

 sists of a pileus of 

 a semicircular out- 

 line, attached at its 

 base to the matrix 

 and its own my- 

 celium (Fig. 17). 

 In these also there 

 is a superior stra- 

 tum, which may be 

 thicker than in the 

 preceding, an inter- 

 mediate substance, 

 and an inferior hy- 

 menium. Tlie upper 



stratum in Foli/purus and Fisitdina is hardly distinct from 

 the intermediate ; but in Fames it usually forms a firm 

 hard crust, very hard and Ikhmv in Fnurs ai/s(ralis and 



Flo. v.— Fust III Ilia hepatici, .sessile iiileiis. 



