12 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



tobasidiomycetes and Eubasidiomycetes are considered the 

 true Basidiomycetes ; the first sub-class including Auricula- 

 riales (Auriculariineae) and Tremellales (Tremellinese) ; the 

 second sub-class including Dacryomycetales ( Dacryomyceti- 

 nese), Exobasidiales (Exobasidiineae), and Hymeniales (Hy- 

 menomycetinege). The Auriculariales include plants of a gela- 

 tinous or cartilaginous consistency, and are more or less ear- 

 shaped; the Tremellales are jelly-like when moist, becoming 

 hard, tough, and horny when dry. The first order of Eubasi- 

 diomycetes includes such plants as Guepinia; the second order 

 includes azalea apples and other plants which are parasitic in 

 the tissues of living plants, often deforming them; the third 

 order, Hymeniales, constitutes the subject of this report. 



The following key to the families of Hymeniales is adopted, 

 with a few changes in the phraseology and in the system of 

 notation, from Engler and Prantl's " Die Natiirlichen Pflanzen- 

 familien." 



Plants mold-like, or spider-web-like, consisting of 



interwoven hyphas ; basidia clustered. . .hypochnace^ 

 Plants of firmly interwoven hyphse; fruiting-surface 

 consisting of basidia arranged in a palisade-like 

 manner I 



1. Fruiting-surface smooth, only slightly roughened or 



wrinkled in some places 2 



Fruiting-surface uneven, with prominent elevations 

 in the form of warts, spines, folds, tubes, etc 3 



2. Fruit-body mostly of membranaceous, leathery, or 



woody consistency, funnel-form, capitate or 



branched thelephorace^ 



Plants mostly fleshy, rarely of a cartilaginous or 

 leathery consistency, upright, club-shaped, capitate 

 or branched clavariace^ 



3. Fruiting-surface with warts, interrupted folds, 



spines, or crested warts or plates hydnace^ 



Fruiting-surface of other shapes 4 



4. Fruiting-surface with regular tubes, or with folds or 



more or less leaf-like plates, which partly or com- 

 pletely unite by running together irregularly in a 

 honey-combed manner, or are united into labyrin- 

 thiform passages polyporace^ 



