370 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



same pileus may become lobed and perfectly lateral, without 

 in the smallest degree impairing the certainty of its distinction, 

 or, finally, the receptacle may vanish altogether, and nothing 

 be left save a resupinate stratum of pores. One of the strongest 

 instances is the resupinate Hydnoid form of Polyp, sangid- 

 neus, which has given rise to Hydnum cinnabarinum, 

 Schwein., and Odontia albo-miniata, Berk, and Curt. Where 

 the receptacle is further ramified, there is frequently every shade 

 between a simple stem, and a mass almost as dense and as 

 repeatedly branched as a cauliflower. Added to which, the 

 same species may in different circumstances be perfectly dry 

 or thickly viscid, smooth or tomentose, naked or scaly, with 

 many other variations ; while in colour we may have tints as 

 manifold as exist in many species of Pheenogams. Where the 

 flocci are the leading feature, their ramification, colour, and 

 composition undergo multitudinous changes. No one, at first 

 sight, could conceive that a Coremium, with its compound 

 stem, was but the same thing with a Penicillium altered by 

 superabundant moisture. The business of the Mycologist is to 

 keep his eye open to such changes, and their proper value, 

 if he wishes to escape the errors which have been committed 

 by so many superficial observers. In some cases he has a 

 ready excuse in the deficiency of his materials, but he cannot 

 plead this with regard to widely diffused forms. 



407. A few simple directions may be given in conclusion of 

 the whole subject of Fungi, for preserving them for the herba- 

 rium. The greater number of Fungi may be preserved exactly 

 like Phsenogams but as they often contain the eggs or larvae 

 of insects, they require some care in looking over, till the stock 

 has completely died out. They will require brushing occa- 

 sionally with corrosive sublimate and turpentine, for, though one 

 application will destroy the larvae and perfect insects, it will 

 not destroy the eggs. Some of the larger species can only be 

 made perfectly free by submission to the heat of an oven. 

 Moulds, and such delicate productions, easily part with their 

 spores. The best way, therefore, is to wrap them lightly, as 

 soon as gathered, in thin paper screwed up at either end. 

 Their greatest enemies are minute acari, which are readily 



