HABITATS. 237 



and JPistillaria 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. 



Tkemellini. — These curious gelatinous fungi are, with rare 

 exceptions, developed on branches or naked wood; Tremella 

 versicolor, B. and Br., one of the exceptions, being parasitic on a 

 species of Corticium, and Tremella epigcea, 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 Gasteeomtcetbs are far less numerous in species, and also 

 in individuals, but their habitats are probably more variable. 

 The Hypogcei, or subterranean species, are found either near the 

 surface or buried in the soil, usually in the neighbourhood of trees. 



Phalloidei. — In most cases the species prefer woody places. 

 They are 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. 



Podaxinei. — 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. 



Trichogastkes. — These are chiefly terrestrial. The rare but 

 curious Batarrea phalloides, P., has been found on sand-hills, 

 and in hollow trees. Tulostoma mammosum, Fr., occurs on old 

 stone walls, growing amongst moss. Oeaster 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. Aglceocystis 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 Neilgherries, and u 

 curious species is found in a similar position in Ceylon. 



