OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
or sterigmata, each of ’which supports a spore. The spores are so placed ami 
spaced that normally they do not touch each other or those of the opposite gill- 
surface, but project freeiy, so that when mature and separated from their little 
stalks, they fall slowly downwards until (tarried awav by the breeze. 
There are two minor features of importance that may be present, one or both. 
There may be a more or less evident sheath at the bast* of the stem, the volva, 
representing a universal sheath which enclosed the young sporophore. There may 
be a more or less distinct ring or annulus on the stem, representing the veil that 
passed from the edge of the cap to the stem and hid from view the gills at an 
earlier stage of development. The volva may be loosely sheathing, lax, or closely 
applied, evanescent or persistent, or reduced to adherent fragments, or may vary 
in other ways. The ring may be fixed or movable, distant from the apex of the 
stem when it is Inferior, or near the apex when it is superior; it may be ample, 
dependent, double, fugacious, or evanescent, or present other characteristics. 
The pileus or hymenophore (i.c., portion bearing the hymen i urn) may be many 
inches in diameter, or not much larger than a pin’s head; it may be of various 
shapes from conical to convex, or plane, or funnel-shaped; it may be regular or 
irregular; it may be smooth, or have scales or warts, or be velvety, or slimy, 
viscid or glutinous; it may show striae, or be ribbed; the edge may be thin or 
rounded, interned or straight, wrinkled or rugose or regular; there may be a 
cuticle or skin-like layer which may or may not peel; it, may be coloured in 
various ways; it may change colour from loss of water in drying (hygrophanous) . 
The gills may be narrow or broad; they may be crowded or close, or subdi stunt 
or distant; they may pass straight to the stem to be attached there along their 
whole length ( advate ), or with a conical pileus they may have to ascend to do 
so (ascending ) ; their attachment to the stem may be narrowed (adnexrd gills), 
or may show a hay (emarginale or sinuate) • they may fail to reach the stem at 
all when they are called free ; they may be thick or thin, or the edge may be 
thinner (acute) ; they may show buttresses or folds, or even anastomose with 
their neighbours, especially near the stem; they may have a juice exuding when 
broken; their colour varies with the species but does not necessarily agree with 
the colour of the spores. The flesh of the pileus varies much in thickness and 
texture; it may be thin and membranous, 01 thick and fleshy; it may thin gradu- 
ally and uniformly outwards, or do so abruptly; it may rapidly undergo colour 
changes, becoming red, brown, green, blue, or even blackish when exposed to the ait 
or in drying. The stem or stipes may be attached to the centre of the cap 
(central), or to one side ( exeenlrie or eccentric ) , or be quite lateral ; it may be 
absent altogether and the pileus be attached along one side ( sessile pileus), or 
it may be attenuated into a stem-like base. The stem may be of equal diameter 
throughout, or attenuated or expanded above or below, or have a bulbous base; 
it may be smooth or viscid, or elad with scales or tibrils; it may be solid, or 
stuffed with a spongy pith, or hollow; in texture it may be fleshy, fibrous, brittle, 
cartilaginous, or tough; it may lit into a kind of socket in the pileus so as to be 
easily separated from the latter, as in the common mushroom ( hymenophore free), 
or its flesh may be confluent with that of the pileus; if confluent, the substance 
may be similar in texture to the flesh of the pileus (as is usual when the stem is 
fleshy), or it may be of a different texture (as in cartilaginous stems). The stem 
mav pass into a rooting base, which may extend deeply, as in Collybia radicata, 
or it may be connected with string-like fibrils (rhfeomorphs) which derive nourish- 
ment from, and incidentally injure, the roots of adjacent, trees or shrubs, as in 
Armillaria mcUea. The vegetative mycelium may in the ground become compacted 
together with soil into a fairly definite mass (false sderolinm), or in the sub- 
stratum it may form into a storage body, or true selero twin, formed entirely of 
dense compacted fungus hyphae, which may be quite small, or as large ns a child’s 
head, and weigh many pounds. From such sclerotia, the fruiting bodies directly 
arise and are formed by the utilisation and transportation of the reserve food 
supplies contained in the sclerotium. 
Such a general survey as that just given will include the more important 
features of most of the common fleshy agarics. There are some genera of gill- 
bearing fungi characterised by possessing other features of note. Thus in the 
Coprim, some of which grow on dung, as lire name implies, the gills liquefy 
from the edge as maturity is reached through the activity of an enzyme or fer- 
ment; in BolbUius the gills liquefy or shrivel rapidly without exactly decaying 
immediately after they mature; in Marasmius and allied genera the dried fungi 
revive when moistened; in Lev tin Us, LenHtes, etc., the xporophores or fruiting 
bodies are tough, membranous, corky, or firm and so do not alter on drying. 
