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THREE NEW GENERA OF THE HIGHER FUNGI. 



Geo. F. Atkinson. 



(with three figures) 

 i. eomycenella, a new genus of hymenomycetes. 



This interesting plant was found during September 1899, on 

 fallen leaves of Rhododendro?t maximum at Blowing rock, N. C. 

 The plant is very minute, entirely white, possesses a delicate 

 pileus which Is broadly campanulate or depressed in age, and a 

 very slender, fleshy stem. An examination with the hand lens 

 showed that there were no lamellae, the underside of the pileus 

 being plane. The Rhododendron leaves, partly dry, rolled in 

 such a way as to protect the fungus, and in this condition it was 

 shipped to Ithaca. On examination with a higher power micro- 

 scope, it was found that the hymenium had dissolved so that the 

 spores lay against the underside of the framework of the pileus 

 in the amorphous layer of dissolved tissue. From this material 

 it was clearly impossible to determine the structure of the fungus. 

 The leaves were then placed in a moist chamber, and in the 

 course of a few days a new plant appeared, and for some time 

 successive ones grew and I was enabled to study the structure. 



For some time none of the plants showed any trace of lamellae, 

 and it appeared that the fungus belonged to the Thelephoraceae. 

 but later one plant was grown somewhat larger than the others, 

 which had rudimentary lamellae, eight of a larger size and four 

 very small. This at once opens the question as to whether the plant 

 belongs to the Thelephoraceae or to the Agaricaceae and whether 

 originally the hymenial surface was plane, and the form with 



w 



lamellae represents a later stage in the evolution of the plant; 

 or whether the gill form represents the original character of the 

 species, which by reduction loses its lamellae. The latter condi- 

 tion is seen sometimes in Marasmius epiphylhis Fr.,' and I have 



I 



'Persoon, Icones pL g.fig. 7. ; Stevenson, Brit. Fung., Hymen. 2: 152 



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[JULY 



