nsists of solid fleshy masses
without any stem of a distinct substance, sometimes club-shaped,
sometimes branched with the hymenium smoothly covering the entire
surface, never incrusting or coriaceous.

In the Thelephorei, the lower surface of the cap presents neither gills,
pores, nor spines, but instead the hymenium covers an uneven or slightly
wrinkled surface, partially striate, sometimes obscurely papillose. The
plants of this order assume a great variety of shape, from that of a
perfect cup with a central stem to an irregularly and much branched
frond. They are generally dry and tough. Very few are recommended as
edible. Prof. Peck says of this order that probably no edible species
will be found in any of its genera outside of the genus Craterellus.

In the order Tremellini we have a great departure from the character of
the substance, external appearance, and internal structure of the other
orders of the Hymenomycetes. The substance is gelatinous; the form is
lobed, folded, or convolute, often resembling the brain of some animal.
It is uniformly composed throughout of a colorless mucilage, with no
appreciable texture, in which are distributed very fine, diversely
branched, and anastomosing filaments. Towards the surface the ultimate
branches of this filamentous network give birth to globular cells, both
at their summits and laterally, which attain a comparatively large size.
These cells are filled with a protoplasm, to which the plant owes its
color. The fertile threads are not compacted into a true hymenium.

Representative types of the above-described orders of the Hymenomycetes
are shown in Plate B. The various genera, and species of these orders,
will be described more in detail in connection with the species
illustrated.

CLASSIFICATION.

Owing to the fact that botanists of various countries, writing in
diverse languages, have for more than a century been engaged in
describing the fungi of their respective countries, with their work
frequently unknown to one another, it is not surprising that there has
been constant revision, or that many changes have been made in the way
of classification and nomenclature which to the amateur student are
often confusing.

The classification by the pioneer mycologist, Elias Fries, as presented
in his several works on fungi, ignored all microscopical characters, and
Saccardo's classification, as presented in his _Sylloge Fungorum_, was
the first complete system