are produced in cells or cysts. These cysts are respectively known as sporangia, and asci or theca. The true meaning and value of these divisions will be better comprehended when we have detailed the characters of the families composing these two divisions.

First, then, the section SPORIFERA contains four families, in two of which a hymenium is present, and in two there is no proper hymenium. The term hymenium is employed to represent a more or less expanded surface, on which the fructification is produced, and is, in fact, the fruit-bearing surface. When no such surface is present, the fruit is borne on threads, proceeding direct from the root-like filaments of the mycelium, or an intermediate kind of cushion or stroma. The two families in which an hymenium is present are called Hymenomycetes and Gasteromycetes. In the former, the hymenium is exposed; in the latter, it is at first enclosed. We must examine each of these separately.

The common mushroom may be accepted, by way of illustration, as a type of the family Hymenomycetes, in which the hymenium is exposed, and is, in fact, the most noticeable feature in the family from which its name is derived. The pileus or cap bears on its under surface radiating plates or gills, consisting of the hymenium, over which are thickly scattered the basidia, each surmounted by four spicules, and on each spicule a spore. When mature, these spores fall freely upon the ground beneath, imparting to it the general colour of the spores. But it must be observed that the hymenium takes the form of gill-plates in only one order of Hymenomycetes, namely, the Agaricini; and here, as in Cantharellus, the hymenium is sometimes spread over prominent veins rather than gills. Still further divergence is manifest in the Polyporei, in which order the hymenium lines the inner surface of pores or tubes, which are normally on the under side of the pileus. Both these orders include an immense number of species, the former more or less fleshy, the latter more or less tough and leathery. There are still other forms and orders in this family, as the Hydnei, in which the hymenium clothes the surface of prickles or spines, and the Auricularini, in which the hymenium is entirely or

F

almost even. In the two remaining orders, there is a still further divergence from the mushroom form. In the one called Clavariei, the entire fungus is either simply cylindrical or club-shaped, or it is very much branched and ramified. Whatever form the fungus assumes, the hymenium covers the whole exposed surface. In the Tremellini, a peculiar structure prevails, which at first seems to agree but little with the preceding. The whole plant is gelatinous when fresh, lobed and convolute, often brain-like, and varying in size, according to species, from that of a pin's head to that of a man's head. Threads and sporophores are imbedded in the gelatinous substance,* so that the fertile threads

are in reality not compacted into a true hymenium. With this introduction we may state that the technical characters of the family are thus expressed :

Hymenium free, mostly naked, or, if enclosed at first, soon exposed; spores naked, mostly quaternate, on distinct spicules = HYMENOMYCETES.

In this family some mycologists believe that fungi attain the highest form of development of which they are capable, whilst others contend that the fructification of the Ascomycetes is more

perfect, and that some of the noblest species, such as the pileate forms, are entitled to the first rank. The morel is a familiar example. Whatever may be said on this point, it is incontrovertible that the noblest and most attractive, as well as the largest, forms are classed under the Hymenomycetes.

In Gasteromycetes, the second family, a true hymenium is also present, but instead of being exposed it is for a long time enclosed in an outer peridium or sac, until the spores are fully matured, or the fungus is beginning to decay. The common puff-ball (Lycoperdon) is well known, and will illustrate the principal feature of the family. Externally there is a tough

Tulasne, L. and C. R., "Observations sur l'Organisation des Trémellinées," "Ann. des Sci. Nat." 1853, xix. p. 193.

coat or peridium, which is at first pale, but ultimately becomes brown. Internally is at first a cream-coloured, then greenish, cellular mass, consisting of the sinuated hymenium and young spores, which at length, and when the spores are fully matured, become brownish and dusty, the hymenium being broken up into threads, and the spores become free. In earlier stages, and before the hymenium is ruptured, the spores have been found to harmonize with those of Hymenomycetes in their mode of production, since basidia are present surmounted each by four spicules, and each spicule normally surmounted by a spore.* Here is, therefore, a cellular hymenium bearing quaternary spores, but, instead of being exposed, this hymenium is wholly enclosed within an external sac or peridium, which is not ruptured until the spores are fully matured, and the hymenium is resolved into threads, together forming a pulverulent mass. It must, however, be borne in mind, that in only some of the orders composing this family is the hymenium thus evanescent, in others being more or less permanent, and this has led naturally enough to the recognition of two subfamilies, in one of which the hymenium is more or less permanent, thus following the Hymenomycetous type; and in the other, the hymenium is evanescent, and the dusty mass of spores tends more towards the Coniomycetes, this being characterized as the coniospermous (or dusty-spored) sub-family.

The first sub-family includes, first of all, the Hypogai, or subterranean species. And here again it becomes necessary to remind the reader that all subterranean fungi are not included in this order, inasmuch as some, of which the truffle is an example, are sporidiiferous, developing their sporidia in asci. To these allusion must hereafter be made. In the Hypogai, the hymenium is permanent and convoluted, leaving numerous minute irregular cavities, in which the spores are produced on

* Berkeley, M. J., "On the Fructification of Lycoperdon, Phallus, and their Allied Genera," in "Ann. of Nat. Hist." (1840), vol. iv. p. 155; "Ann. des Sci. Nat." (1839), xii. p. 163. Tulasne, L. R. and C., "De la Fructification des Scleroderma comparée à celle des Lycoperdon et des Bovista," in "Ann. des Sci. Nat." 2me sér. xvii. p. 5.

*

sporophores. When specimens are very old and decaying, the interior may become pulverulent or deliquescent. The structure of subterranean fungi attracted the attention of Messrs. Tulasne, and led to the production of a splendid monograph on the subject. Another order belonging to this sub-family is the Phalloidei, in which the volva or peridium is ruptured whilst the plant is still immature, and the hymenium when mature becomes deliquescent. Not only are some members of this order most singular in appearance, but they possess an odour so fœtid as to be unapproached in this property by any other vegetable production.† In this order, the inner stratum of the investing volva is gelatinous. When still young, and previous to the rupture of the volva, the hymenium presents sinuous cavities in which the spores are produced on spicules, after the manner of Hymenomycetes.‡ Nidulariacei is a somewhat aberrant order, presenting a peculiar structure. The peridium consists of two or three coats, and bursts at the apex, either irregularly or in a stellate manner, or by the separation of a little lid. Within the cavity are contained one or more secondary receptacles, which are either free or attached by elastic threads to the common receptacle. Ultimately the secondary receptacles are hollow, and spores are produced in the interior, borne on spicules. § The appearance in some genera as of a little bird's-nest containing eggs has furnished the name to the order.

The second sub-family contains the coniospermous puff-balls, and includes two orders, in which the most readily distinguishable feature is the cellular condition of the entire plant, in its earlier stages, in the Trichogastres, and the gelatinous condition of the early state of the Myxogastres. Both are ultimately resolved internally into a dusty mass of threads and spores.

*

Tulasne, L. R. and C., "Fungi Hypogæi," Paris, 1851; "Observations sur le Genre Elaphomyces," in "Ann. des Sci. Nat." 1841, xvi. 5.

Stapelia in this respect approach most closely to the Phalloidei.
Berkeley, in "Ann. Nat. Hist. " vol. iv. p. 155.

§ Tulasne, L. R. and C., "Recherches sur l'Organisation et le Mode de Fruc tification des Nidulariées," ""Ann. des Sci. Nat." (1844), i. p. 41.

In the former, the peridium is either single or double, occasionally borne on a stem, but usually sessile. In Geaster, the "starry puff-balls," the outer peridium divides into several lobes, which fall back in a stellate manner, and expose the inner peridium, like a ball in the centre. In Polysaccum,

the interior is divided into numerous cells, filled with secondary peridia. The mode of spore-production has already been alluded to in our remarks on Lycoperdon. All the species are large, as compared with those of the following sub-family, and one species of Lycoper don attains an enormous size. One specimen recorded in the "Gardener's Chronicle" was three feet four inches 38.-Scleroderma vulgare, Fr. in circumference, and weighed nearly ten pounds. In the Myxogastres, the early stage has been the subject of much controversy. The gelatinous condition presents phenomena so unlike anything previously recorded in plants, that one learned professor* did not hesitate to propose their exclusion from the vegetable, and recognition in the animal, kingdom as associates of the Gregarines. When mature, the spores and threads so much resemble those of the Trichogastres, and the little plants themselves are so veritably miniature puff. balls, that the theory of their animal nature did not meet with a ready acceptance, and is now virtually abandoned. The characters of the family we have thus briefly reviewed are tersely stated, as

Hymenium more or less permanently concealed, consisting in most cases of closely-packed cells, of which the fertile ones bear naked spores on distinct spicules, exposed only by the rupture or decay of the investing coat or peridium GASTEROMYCETES.

=

We come now to the second section of the Sporifera, in which no definite hymenium is present. And here we find also two families, in one of which the dusty spores are the De Bary, A., "Des Myxomycètes," in "Ann. des Sci. Nat." 4m sér. xi. p. 153; "Bot. Zeit." xvi. p. 357.