JOURNAL 



OF THE 



EOTAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



APRIL 18S8. 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



IV. — On the Type of a new order of Fungi. 

 By George Massee, F.R.M.S. 



{Read lith March, 1888.) 

 Plate IV. 



The Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Mr. C. E. Broome, in describing a 

 collection of fungi from Ceylon, established the genus Artocreas, 

 characterized as follows : — " Receptaculum commune distinctum ; 

 hymenium planum e sporis magnis pulveraceum." * Two species are 

 described — A. poroniasforme B. and Br., from Ceylon, which the 

 authors state, in a note following the specific diagnosis, as " looking 

 just like an imperfect Crwyihulvm? The second species, A. Micheneri 

 Berk, and Curt., from Cuba and the United States, resembles in 

 general appearance a Corticium with a determinate, thickened, raised 

 margin, and agrees with the authors' conceptions as to the affinities of 

 the genus in the order Thelephoreae, and must henceforth be considered 

 as the type. A. poroniseforme, although agreeing with the generic 

 character given above in having a distinct receptacle and plane surface 

 (not hymenium) powdered with large spores, proves on microscopic 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV. 



Fig. 1. — Matula poronise forme ; nat. size. 

 „ 2. — Vertical section of same, showing peridium and septa of gleba, spores 



removed ; nat. size. 

 „ 3. — Vortical section of young plant, showing peridium, a ; epiphragm, b ; 



and thick septa springing from inner surface of peridium, .c, x 15 



diam. 

 „ 4. — Vertical section of old plant, showing the thin remains of the septa and 



mass of spores (the latter drawn larger than their proportion to 



magnification of section) x 15 diam. 

 „ 5. — Transverse section of old plant at some distance below the apex, x 15 



diam. 

 „ 6. — Section showing structure of the peridium, x 400 diam. 

 „ 7. — Section through a septum of a young plant ; a a, monosporous ; 



b b, bisporous basidia, x 400 diam. 

 „ 8. — Spores, x 400 diam. 



* Jouru. Linn. Soc. Lond., xiv. p. 73. 

 1888. 



