CHAPTKU V 



THE FRUCTIFICATION 



The contents of the various forms of receptacle already 

 described, and those forms of fructification which are capable 

 of being produced nukcil, withoiiL a receptacle, next demand 

 attention. The best-known to the general public, and there- 

 fore the most interesting, are those large and conspicuous Fungi 

 which pass under the name of Mushrooms or Agarics, and 

 the woody Polypores, with the spore-bearing surface on the 

 under side. In more scientific language, these are the 

 Hymenomycetal Fungi, and so called because the hymenium 

 or fructifying surftice is naked, and produces naked spores. 

 From what has preceded it will be remembered that a fleshy 

 or woody pileus or receptacle, sometimes with, and sometimes 

 without a stem, is the supporter of this kind of fructification. 

 To the eye it presents the appearance of a continuous surface 

 extending over plates or gills in the Agaricini, lining the 

 interior of parallel tubes in the Polyporci, covering the outer 

 surface of teeth or spines in the Hydnci, disposed over a nearly 

 even plane in the Thdcphorci, effused over an erect, simple, or 

 branched carpophore, but without receptacle in the Clavarici, 

 and immersed in a gelatinous stratum in the Trcmcllinci. 

 Under all these modifications the primary elements of the 

 hymenium are the same, or chiefiy so ; that is to say, there are 

 one, two, or three kinds of elongated cells, packed side by side 

 and called respectively hasidia, cystidia, and sterile cells. 

 Only the first kind are fertile, and bear at the apex four 

 spores, surmounted on short slender spicules ; the cystidia ^ are 



' The usual interpretation of the function of cystidia is, that they arc simply 

 mechanical contrivances projectinj,' fruni the surface of the hjTiionium, and thus 

 keeping the gills or lamellae apart. 



