544 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



plates, and so has an area enormously greater than that of the pileus. 

 This surface is closely packed with club-shaped processes, some of which 

 are sterile and rounded at the summit. Others (basidia) end in four sharp 

 points, each surmounted by a spore. When the sporophore first makes 



its appearance, owing 

 to the elongation of the 

 stem pushing it through 

 the soil, it is more or 

 less spherical and com- 

 paratively small. In the 

 case of the genus Aman- 

 ita the entire sphoro- 

 phore is invested by a 

 general wrapper (volva), 

 which is ruptured by the 

 lengthening of the stem 

 and the expansion of the 

 cap, the latter breaking 

 the upper portion of the 

 volva into scaly frag- 

 ments, which may be 

 seen on the cap in the 

 photograph. In some 

 genera no remains of the 

 volva are left on the cap. 

 In Amanita the gills are 

 further protected in the 

 unexpanded toadstool 

 by a delicate membrane 

 (the veil) which spreads 

 from the stem to the 

 margin of the pileus, 

 from which it separates 

 and hangs as a beautiful 

 frill around the upper 

 part of the stem. 



In the Family Poly- 

 porese the place of the 

 gills is taken by a 

 sponge-like mass consisting of tubes packed closely together, and the spores 

 on their basidia are contained in the tubes. The tube-mass may be soft 

 (Boletus), corky (Polyporus), leathery (Polystictus), woody (Fames), etc. The 

 characteristic of the Hydnese is the substitution of spines for tubes or plates. 

 In Thelephorese there are neither gills, tubes, nor spines, the basidia being 



FlG. 



. Tremella mesenterica. 



This representative of the Tremellinese grows on dead branches, and is of a 

 rich golden-yellow colour and the consistency of jelly. 



