GELATINOUS FUNGI 217 



Auricularia (Hirneola) polytricha is the "Mu-esh" of the Chinese, who 

 gather it as an article of food, in fact oak boughs are cut and allowed to 

 decay to raise the fungus. 



Family Pilacrace^. — ^This is a small family of two genera, Pila- 

 crclla and Pilacre, with spheric stalked fruit bodies. The basidia are 

 in capitate clusters and surrounded at first by a peridium-Uke wall, 

 which breaks at maturity. 



Suborder Tremelline^. — Family Tremellace^. — This family 

 includes twelve genera, of which Trcmella is the most important. The 

 majority are widely distributed and live saprophytically on wood, where 

 they appear as soft, trembhng, gelatinous masses, when moist, becoming 

 rigid and horny when dry. The basidia are longitudinally divided by 

 two septa. The four portions thus formed each bear a terminal basidio- 

 spore. Some species of Tremella produce conidiospores. Tremella 

 frondosa has been used as food, but as such is unsatisfactory. Tremella 

 foliacea is of a smoky-brown color, cold, clammy and trembles in the 

 hands. When stewed, it becomes a shmy mess relished only by the 

 Chinese. Tremella mesenterica is brain-like in its convolutions, ge- 

 latinous in texture and usually the size of a walnut, and of an orange-red 

 color. 



