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Division II (Cupulati These are included)

Cupulati. These are included in the Fungoides of the old botanists. The species which are separate from their thallus and much developed, are little changed by the places in which they grow, and are therefore the same in the most remote countries; but the eruptive or innate species, which are more affected by the nature of the substance by which they are fed, are liable to greater changes when their matrix is altered. For it is a general rule, that the more a fungus is innate in the substance which produces it, the more it is not only imperfect, but affected by its situation, and vice-versa. Hence Cæoma, which is of a very low order, consists of as many species as the plants upon which it grows, just as a vowel forms as many distinct words as it is combined with distinct consonants.

The Clavati and Pileati, which chiefly depend upon the access of light, are in perfection from spring to autumn; the Elvellaceæ from autumn to spring. The Cupulati also depend much upon the operation of light, for in caverns or cellars they remain closed and sphæria-like. Such is the case with Peziza cerina, which in dark places, undergoes many metamorphoses; and Cenangium under similar circumstances, when some obstacle is offered to the developement of its hymenium, becomes deliquescent. Generally the terrestrial sorts agree in habitude with the preceding divisions; but those which are eruptive are often in perfection for half a year together.

Class III. Tremellini. These are nearly akin to the Pileati and Clavati, especially to Thelephora and Calocera; and also to Elvellaceæ, more particularly to Hygromitra, Peziza, Mollisia, Bulgaria, and Ditiola, but they are distinguished without difficulty by the characters assigned to them. Formerly all the genera were confounded under one, along with various species of Lichens and Algæ. These ORDER IX.

FUNGI. 2392. Bulgaria. Cupula closed at first. Asci immersed, with paraphyses, becoming separate and bursting out. Gelatinous. 2393. Ditiola. Hymenium becoming plaited and deliquescent. Cupula open. Veil universal. Corky. 2394. Cenangium.

Hymenium smooth, persistent, rarely deliquescent. Cupula closed, but opening finally. Somewhat coriaceous. 2395. Stictis. Hymenium smooth, immersed. Cupula obliterated. Hymenium persistent. 2396. Cryptomyces . Spreading, quite adnate, emerging, nearly plane, carnose. Hymenium covering the whole surface. Thecæ erect. Sporidia large, oval. surface. Thecæ erect. Sporidia large, oval.

Class III.

TREMELLINI.

Hymenium confounded with a gelatinous receptacle. Sporidia separate. Asci none. 2397. Tremella. Receptacle gelatinous homogeneous, fructifying in all directions, without papillæ, Sporidia nearly emerging. §1. Coryne. Fleshy gelatinous, somewhat clavate. 2. Phyllopta. Somewhat cartilaginous, expanded, leafy. 2398. Exidia. Receptacle gelatinous, homogeneous, covered on the upper surface only by a papillose hymenium. Sporidia emitted with elasticity. . Sporidia emitted with elasticity. 2399. Dacrymyces. Receptacle gelatinous, homogeneous, filled with assurgent flocci, and sporidia placed in layers inside. When young compact, but finally deliquescent. inside. When young compact, but finally deliquescent. 2400. Agyrium. Receptacle spherical, smooth, compact, waxy, when humid gelatinous, finally crumbling away in sporidia. 2401. Hymenella. Recep acle flattened, adnate, smooth, like soft leather, very thin, persistent. 2402. Næmatelia . Receptacle gelatinous, surrounding a compact heterogeneous nucleus. Sporidia emerging. Class IV. SCLEROTIACEE.

Hymenium confounded both with the fleshy receptacle and the sporidia. Asci none. 2403. Acrospermum. Elongated, somewhat clavate, with a coat of a similar substance, distinctly fructifying at the end. 2404. Sclerotium. Subglobose, or without regular form within, homogeneous, vesiculose, carnose, or corneous. Sporules unknown. 2405. Rhizoctonia. Deformed, united with a similar persistent coat by means of root-like fibres proceeding from all points of its surface. all points of its surface. 2406. Periola. Rootless, fleshy, covered entirely by a villous persistent coat. 2407. Acinula. Rootless, smooth, with a distinct farinaceous granular coat. 2408. Erysiphe. Sporangium epiphyllous, very minute, globose, furnished with white radiating subjacent filaments, and containing sporuliferous bodies. , and containing sporuliferous bodies.

TRIBE II. GASTEROMYCETES, Fungus entirely closed, and bearing sporidia in the centre; and so forming an uterus. Class I. ANGIOGASTRES.

Uterus finally bursting forth, separate from the receptacle. Sporidia lodged in the receptacle. Division I. Phalloideæ.

Receptacle separate, open on account of the bursting of the uterus. Sporidia placed in a mucous layer. 2409. Phallus. Stipes issuing from a volva. Pileus furnished with large cells filled with a sporuliferous slimy substance.

Observations. are by modern writers now referred to their proper stations. The genus Mycoderma of Persoon, to which are referred those tough skin-like coatings which are found upon vegetable extracts enclosed in bottles, and which is generally placed among Tremellini, is thought by Fries to be not of a vegetable nature. The species at present known are found in Europe, Asia, and North America, but no material difference seems to be caused in them by their native country. All the species, with one exception, are epiphytes; the most perfect bursting forth from the bark of trees; the least perfect occurring on decorticated wood, the stems of herbs, &c. &c. The more the wood is dried, the nearer the species approach to Lichens; the more it is humid to Algæ. They are in perfection in the latter part of autumn, winter, and early spring, but scarcely any are found in the summer. Some live for a month or more; others appear to be perennial. When dry they are not to be recognized; they may nevertheless be preserved, and if moistened, they recover their original appearance. It must be observed, that they are in all cases to be examined in a wet and tumid state. Their qualities are refrigerant, and but little known. They are destitute of smell and taste, for which reason, and on account of their mucilaginous texture, scarcely any species is eatable. Many of the large kinds were formerly used in medicine in cases of ophthalmia, under the name of the "Jew's ear." Vinegar in which they had been steeped was also used as a gargle in tumors of the throat, according to Clusius. Tremella fimbriata is said to furnish a dye, and the sporidia of T. mesenterica to dye yellow. Dacrymyces destroys timber.

Class IV. Sclerotiacea. The affinity of this class is complex; for the lower we descend, the less differences are to be found between natural bodies. Thus Sclerotiacei are not only closely connected with the preceding divisions, but have a more or less obvious relation to all the hymenine and epiphytous classes of other tribes. Before the time of Tode, a most sagacious observer, who was the first to distinguish the Sclerotia from other fungi, a very few species only were known, which were confounded with Lycoperdon, Sphæria, Tuber, and other genera. He was followed by various other mycologists, and especially by Decandolle, who described thirtynine species. Tode, Persoon, and Link, have been unable to detect any fructification; Decandolle, Ehren. berg, and Fries, declare that the sporidia are scattered through the whole mass of the fungus, and emerge from it like hoar-frost.

Most of the known species are epiphytes, either upon living or recently dead plants. When growing in cellars and subterraneous places they undergo no alteration, but they do not fructify. They flourish most in the winter, late in the autumn, and early early in the spring; and are exceedingly common just at the retreat of winter. A very few Spermodia only are found in the summer. Their odor and smell are either inconspicuous or nauseous. None of the species at least are eatable. Those which grow on rotten seeds are exceedingly poisonous. Some feed on the roots of living plants, which they destroy; others infest sickly herbs, whence they are a pest to the farmers.

Tribe II. Gasteromycetes. These fungi consist of concrete cells; they have a determinate figure and a tendency to a spherical form; at first they are closed, but finally are furnished with an orifice; or burst in an irregular manner, and emit an internal mass of reproductive matter, which either crumbles to pieces or deliquesces. The integument is of various natures, either a volva, a peridium, or perithecium, of a somewhat bladdery texture; and is simple or double, but rarely multiple. They almost all, when young, are fluxile or soft, or have some part or another of a fluid nature; afterwards they become indurated and rigid, and assume their true forms.

Class I. Angiogastres. These are fungi of remarkable forms, and most unusual mode of fructifying; they were well known to Clusius, not to mention the celebrated Truffle of which Theophrastus had knowledge. They are found in different climates; but the most perfect only in temperate regions. The latter are also 3R3 CRYPTOGAMIA.

CLASS XXIV. 2410. Batarrea. Head hemispherical, crumbling to pieces under the vertex into a little tuft of hairs bearing sporules. Stipes smooth. Involucrum triple, flowing with mucilage.