24 



'FUNGI. 



Agaricmi. In many cases the stem is suppressed. The sub- 

 stance is fleshy in Boletus, but in Polyporus the greater number 

 of species are leathery or corky, and more persistent. The 

 basidia, spicules, and qnaternate spores agree with those of 

 Agaric ini.* In fact there are no features of importance which 

 relate to the hymenium in any order of Hymenomycetes (the 

 Tremellini excepted) differing from the same organ in Agaricini, 

 unless it be the absence of cystidia. 



Hydnei. — Instead of pores, 

 in this order the hymenium 

 is spread over the surface of 

 spines, prickles, or warts.'f- 



Aueiculaeini. — The hyme- 

 nium is more or less even, 

 and in — 



Clavariei the whole fungus 

 is club-shaped, ox more or 

 less intricately branched, with 

 the hymenium covering the 

 outer Surface. 



Tbemellini. — In this order we have a great departure from 

 the character of the substance, external appearance, and internal 

 structure of the other orders in this family. Here we have a 

 gelatinous substance, and the form is lobed, folded, convolute, 

 often resembling the brain of some animal. The internal struc- 



* It is not intended that the spores are always quaternate in Agaricini, though 

 that number is constant in the more typical species. They sometimes exceed 

 four, and are sometimes reduced to one. • 



+ The species long known as Hydnum, gelatinosum was examined by Mr. F. 

 Currey in I860 (Journ. Linn. Soc), and he came to the conclusion that it was 

 not a good Hydnum. Since then it has been made the type of a new genus 

 (fjydnoglcea B. and Br. or, as called by Fries, in the new edition of " Epicrisis," 

 Tremellodon, Pers. Myc. Eur.), and transferred to the Tremellini. Currey says, 

 upon examining the fructification, he was surprised to find that, although in its 

 external characters it was a perfect Hydnum, it bore the fruit of a Tremella. 

 If one of the teeth be examined with the microscope, it will be seen to consis£ of 

 threads bearing four-lobed sporophores, and spores exactly similar to Tremella. 

 It will thus be seen, he adds, that the plant is exactly intermediate between 

 Ilydnci and Tremellini, forming, as it were, a stepping-stone from one to the other. 



Fig. 5. — Hydnum repandum. 



