HABITATS. 237 
and Pistillaria are small, growing chiefly on dead herbaceous 
plants. One or two are developed from a kind of Sclerotium, 
which is in fact a compact perennial mycelium. 
TRENELLINI—These curious gelatinous fungi are, with rare 
exceptions, developed on branches or naked wood; Zremeila 
versicolor, B. and Br., one of the exceptions, being parasitic on a 
species of Cortictum, and Tremella epigea, B. and Br., spreading 
over the naked soil. This completes our rapid survey of the 
habitats of the Hymenomycetes. Very few of them are really 
destructive to vegetation, for the Agarics and Polypori found on 
growing trees are seldom to be seen on vigorous, but rather on 
dead branches or partly-decayed trunks. 
The Gasrrromyceres are far less numerous in species, and also 
in individuals, but their habitats are probably more variable. 
The Hypogai, or subterranean species, are found either near tlic 
surface or buried in the soil, usually in the neighbourhood of trees. 
Puattoipet—In most cases the species prefer woody places. 
They ave mostly terrestrial, and have the faculty of making their 
presence known, even when not seen, by the fetid odour which 
many of them exhale. Some of them occur in sandy spots. 
Popaxinet.—-These resemble in their localities the Tricho- 
gastres. Species of Podaxon affect the nests of Termites in 
tropical countries.# Others are found growing amongst grass. 
Triciocastres.—These are chiefly terrestvial. The rare but 
curious Batarrea phalloides, P., has been found on sand-hills, 
and in hollow trees. Twlostoma mammcsum, Fr., occurs on old 
stone walls, growing amongst moss. Geaster striatus, D. C., 
‘was at one time usually found on the sand of the Denes at Great 
Yarmouth. Although Lycoperdon giganteum, Batsch, occurs 
most frequently in pastures, or on hedge banks in fields, we 
have known it to occur annually for some consecutive years 
in a garden near London. The species of Scleroderma seem to 
prefer a sandy soil. Aglaocystis is rather an anomalous genus, 
occurring on the fruit heads of Cyperus, in India. Broomeia 
occurs at the Cape on rotten wood. 
* An excellent white Agaric occurs on ant nests in the Ncilgherrics, and a 
evrious species is found in a similar position in Ceylon. 
