INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOOAMIC BOTANY. SoH 



of authentic specimens of species described by Scliweinitz ; as 

 also by a host which have rewarded tlie researches of Lea, 

 Curtis, and Raven el, as well as a number of excellent col- 

 lectors, whose industry and acuteness they have been enabled 

 to engage in the pursuit. The most abundant localities in 

 Sweden are those in which the woods consist of Conifers 

 mixed with other trees ; and one cause of the immense variety 

 of species there is, that the woods of the middle of Sweden 

 are so different from those of the south, insomuch that the 

 mycology of the two districts is very different. On the 

 whole. Great Britain, though possessing a considerable list of 

 species, is not abundant in individuals, except as regards a 

 limited number of species. The exuberance, even in the most 

 favourable autumn, is not to be compared with that of Sweden 

 or many parts of Germany. Many of the species which afford 

 wholesome food there, occur here only in small quantities ; 

 and if people were dependent for food, in the months most 

 favourable to mycology, on the fleshy Fungi, in the inferior 

 oolite districts with which I am most familar, notwithstanding 

 the very large number of species which occurs, a general star- 

 vation must inevitably arise, even were they as indiscriminate 

 in their use as are the Poles and Russians. Other uses to 

 which plants of this order are api)lied are very limited, and 

 have either been already noticed, or will be mentioned under 

 the respective heads. 



1. Tremellini, Ft. 



Gelatinous, more or less lobed and folded, rarely peziza^form, 

 clavate or effused. Sporophores very long, produced on spori- 

 form cells ; not compacted into a continuous hymenium. Sper- 

 matia on separate threads or on processes of the S2:)ores. 



382. The gelatinous substance is one of the most striking 

 external features of this group, though it is not altogether dis- 

 tinctive, as genera exhibiting such a texture occur in other 

 divisions. For the most part there is no appearance of myce- 

 liiun, nor, indeed, of anything except the stroma, which is more 

 or less developed, and does not give off a continuous stratum 

 of compacted sporophores. The fructifying surface is always 

 superior, and follows every inequality of the stroma, Avhether 

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