4o6 BRITISH FUNGI 



Key to the Genera 



Substance soft, gelatinous, and encrusting various substances. 



Aldridgea. 



Resupinate, dry, and powdery ; spores coloured. Coniophora. 



Resupinate, hymenium smooth, becoming cracked ; spores 

 colourless. Corticiiim. 



Resupinate ; hymenium minutely bristly ; bristles colourless. 



Peniophora. 



Resupinate ; hymenium minutely bristly ; bristles coloured. 



Hymenochcste. 



Fungus more or less free from its support and recurved ; spores 

 colourless. Stereum. 



Closely resembling a Stereum in general appearance ; differing in 

 having a more or less wrinkled hymenium. Cladoderyis. 



Fungus more or less free from its support ; hymenium brownish ; 

 spores coloured. Theleplwra. 



Cup-shaped or pipe-head-shaped and pendulous, minute. Cypliclla. 



Cylindrical, in crowded patches. Solcnia. 



Funnel-shaped, blackish, large, tufted. Cratercllus. 



Parasitic on rhododendron leaves. Exobasidium. 



notes on the genera 

 Coniophora 

 All the species form more or less broadty effused crusts or patches 

 on bark and wood. The entire patch is closel}' adnate or attached 

 to the substratum, and there is not the slightest tendency on the 

 part of the margin to become free or raised. The hymenium is 

 always perfectly smooth and even, but when growing over the 

 rough surface of bark, etc., the very thin substance of the fungus 

 follows the inequalities of the matrix, which gives it an une^'en 

 appearance. The hymenium is dry, and often powdery from the 

 spores, and in some species it is sprinkled with glistening particles. 

 The patches, as in other adnate fungi, increase in size by the 

 gradual extension of the edge or margin, all the way round, and the 

 character presented by the margin is often a point of specific im- 

 portance. When the margin gradually thins away and becomes 

 vague and ill-defined, it is said to be indeterminate ; when well- 

 defined, the margin is determinate, and then the outwardly extend- 

 ing hypha; present very different appearances in different species. 

 The colour of the growing border is usually different to that of the 

 central part, or hymenium, and should be noted when fresh. The 

 hymenium is usually some shade of yellowish brown ; the radiating 

 margin is in some species bright yellow. 



Aldridgea 

 Recognized by having a soft and subgelatinous consistency when 

 growing, collapsing and becoming rigid when dry. The species 



