12 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



tobasidiomycetes and Eubasidiomycetes are considered the 

 true Basidiomycetes ; the first sub-class including Auricula- 

 riales (Auriculariinese) and Tremellales (Tremellinese) ; the 

 second sub-class including Dacryomycetales (Dacryomyceti- 

 neae), Exobasidiales (Exobasidiinese), and Hymeniales (Hy- 

 menomycetineae ) . The Auriculariales include plants of a gela- 

 tinous or cartilaginous consistency, and are more or less ear- 

 shaped ; the Tremellales are jelly-like when moist, becoming 

 hard, tough, and horn}- when dry. The first order of Eubasi- 

 diomycetes includes such plants as Guepinia ; the second order 

 includes azalea apples and other plants which are parasitic in 

 the tissues of living plants, often deforming them ; the third 

 order, Hymeniales, constitutes the subject of this report. 



The following key to the families of Hymeniales is adopted, 

 with a few changes in the phraseology and in the system of 

 notation, from Engler and Prantl's " Die Natiirlichen Pflanzen- 

 familien." 



Plants mold-like, or spider-web-like, consisting of 



interwoven hyphae ; basidia clustered. .. h\tochxace.e 

 Plants of firmly interwoven hyphae ; fruiting-surface 



consisting of basidia arranged in a palisade-like 



manner I 



i. Fruiting-surface smooth, only slightly roughened or 



wrinkled in some places 2 



Fruiting-surface uneven, with prominent elevations 



in the form of warts, spines, folds, tubes, etc 3 



2. Fruit-bod)' mostly of membranaceous, leathery, or 



wood)- consistency, funnel-form, capitate or 



branched thelethorace.e 



Plants mostly flesh)-, rarely of a cartilaginous or 

 leather)' consistency, upright, club-shaped, capitate 

 or branched CLAVARIACE.E 



3. Fruiting-surface with warts, interrupted folds, 



spines, or crested warts or plates HYDNACEje 



Fruiting-surface of other shapes 4 



4. Fruiting-surface with regular tubes, or with folds or 



more or less leaf-like plates, which partlv or com- 

 pletely unite by running together irregularly in a 

 honey-combed manner, or arc united into labyrin- 

 thifonn passages polvporace.e 



