VIII. FUNGI. 
605 
4. MARASMIUS, Fries. 
Habit, etc., of Agaricus. Pileus fleshy or membranous ; hymenium dry, 
extending over both gills and their interstices. Gills thick, tough, coriaceous, 
edge acute. 
A large European and exotic genus. 
1. M. caperatus, Berk, in Hook. Kew Journ. Bot. in. 44 ;—Fl. N. Z. 
ii. 175. Snow-white, delicate, inodorous. Stem short, furfuraceous. Pileus 
1— If- in. broad, membranous, plicate and corrugate, smooth. Gills distant, 
broad, adnate. 
Northern Island : on dead wood, Wairarapa, Colenso. (Himalaya mountains.) 
5. LENTINUS, Fries. 
Habit, etc., of Agaricus. Pileus fleshy or leathery, or hard. Gills tough, 
with toothed or lacerated acute edges ; hymenium of the same consistence 
as the stem. 
A large genus, especially in warm countries. 
1. L. novse-SSelandise, Berk.; — FI. N. Z. ii. 176. Subimbricated, 
small. Stem obsolete. Pileus thin, brown, 1 in. broad and upwards, fla- 
belliform suborbicular or reniform, clothed behind with velvety olive down. 
Gills narrow, thin, decurrent behind, of the same colour as the pileus; edges 
thin, torn. 
Northern Island : on dead wood, Colenso. M. Haast sends a sketch, of a very dif- 
ferent and much larger species, but indeterminable. 
6. SCLEROMA, Fries. 
Characters of Lentinus, but the edges of the gills are quite entire. Trama 
indistinct. 
Tropical and subtropical Fungi, growing on dry soil in patches. 
1. S. pygmaeum, Berk, in FI. N. Z. ii. 176. Small, dirty white. 
Stem 1-2 in. high, very slender, powdery, rooting, reddish. Pileus 1 in. 
diam., umbilicate, thin, glabrous, striate. Gills rather distant, decurrent far 
down the stem, interstices smooth. 
Northern Island: Tekawera forests, on decayed logs, Colenso. The smallest species of 
the genus. 
7. P ANUS, Fries. 
Pileus tough but fleshy, drying up. Gills tough, unequal, with quite entire 
acute edges. Trama distinct, fibrous. 
A considerable tropical and temperate genus, distinguished from Scleroma by the fibrous 
trama. 
1. P. stypticus, Fries ; — Berk, in FI. N. Z. ii. 176. Stem short, 
thick, lateral, dilated upwards. Pileus reniform, coriaceous ; cinnamon- 
coloured, vinous when young; surface breaking up into mealy scales. Gills 
