LYMAN: STUDIES OF HYMENOMYCETES. 
135 
pileus with ventral smooth hymenium. The edges of the growing 
pileus curve under and finally join the stipe, thus enclosing a central 
cavity which is lined with the hymenium and traversed by the stipe 
as a columella. From its method of development, Juel regards the 
fungus as a Hymenomycete rather than a Gasteromycete. In the 
mature condition the cavity becomes filled with chlamydosporic 
hyphae, and the fructification somewhat resembles that of Ptyeho- 
gaster. The chlamydospores are produced in abundance, either 
singly or in chains on the hyphae. Juel was unable to distinguish 
detached chlamydospores from basidiospores. In cultures of spores 
he found no conidia, but in spontaneous cultures on rabbit dung 
there were numerous chains of conidia which he thought belonged to 
Hemigaster, although he was unable to prove it, for the conidia on 
germination produced only conidia-bearing mycelia. 
Thelephoraceae .— According to Eichelbaum (’86), specimens of 
Stereum hirsutum kept for several days in a damp chamber produce 
a white mouldly growth of hyphae from the palisade zone of the 
hymenium. On these hyphae numerous roundish conidia are borne 
terminally or laterally. Eichelbaum’s attempts to germinate the 
spores yielded only yeast-like budding. The same spores were seen 
by Massee (’90-’9l) in specimens of this species grown in moist situa¬ 
tions. In such eases the hymenium presented a velvety appearance 
due to the presence of small compact bundles of hyphae which branched 
in an irregularly verticillate manner, each branch bearing at its end a 
small colorless spore. “In very dilute alkaline solutions the gonidia 
made feeble attempts at germination.” Marshall Ward (’97), how¬ 
ever, found no conidia in his thorough study of this fungus, nor did 
Brefeld (’89), who also cultivated eight other species of Stereum, 
obtaining only sterile mycelia in all cases. The conidia reported by 
Eichelbaum and Massee in Stereum hirsutum belong to a class of 
wet-weather spores found in a number of Hymenomycetes (of. Solenia, 
p. 136, Pleurotus, p. 139, Mycena, p. 140, Polystictus, p. 142). Until 
these spores have been more thoroughly investigated, we must regard 
their nature as uncertain, and their occasional production as of doubt¬ 
ful importance to the fungus. 
Doubtless the bodies referred to in the following extract from a 
letter from Professor Burt are of the same nature as those mentioned 
above: “In young stages Corticium roseum Pers. bears a crop of 
minute spore-like bodies, presumably conidia. The conidiophores 
