=Tremella fuciformis= Berk.--This is a very beautiful white tremella growing in woods on leaf mold close to the ground. It forms a large white tubercular mass resting on the ground, from the upper surface of which numerous stout, short, white processes arise which branch a few times in a dichotomous manner. The masses are 10--15 cm. in diameter, and nearly or quite as high. The flesh is very soft, and the parts are more or less hollow. The basidia are like those of the genus, globose, sunk in the substance of the plant, and terminate with four long, slender, sterigmata which rise to the surface and bear the spores. The spores are white, nearly ovoid, but inequilateral and somewhat reniform, continuous, 7--9 × 5--6 µ. Figure 207 is from a plant collected in a woods near Ithaca, in August, 1897. GYROCEPHALUS Pers. The genus _Gyrocephalus_ differs from the other _Tremellineæ_ in having the fruiting surface on the lower side of the fruit body, while the upper side is sterile. [Illustration: FIGURE 208.--Gyrocephalus rufus. Reddish or reddish yellow (natural size). Copyright.] =Gyrocephalus rufus= (Jacq.) Bref.--This species is sometimes very abundant. It grows on the ground, generally from buried wood, or from dead roots. It is erect, stout at the base, and the upper end flattened and thinner. It is more or less spatulate, the upper side somewhat concave, and the lower somewhat convex. In some plants the pileus is more regular and there is then a tendency to the funnel form. It is reddish, or reddish yellow in color, smooth, clammy, watery, and quite gelatinous. When dry it is very hard. Figure 208 represents the form of the plant well, from plants collected at Ithaca. The plant is quite common in the damp glens and woods at Ithaca during the autumn. CHAPTER XIII. THELEPHORACEAE. Many of the species of the Thelephoraceæ to which the following two species belong are too tough for food. A large number of these grow on wood. They are known by their hard or membranaceous character and by the fruiting surface (under surface when in the position in which they grew) being smooth, or only slightly uneven, or cracked. =Craterellus cantharellus= (Schw.) Fr., is an edible species. In general appearance it resembles the _Cantharellus cibarius_. The color is the same, and the general shape, except that the former is perhaps more irregular in form. It may, however, be in most cases easily distinguished from _C. cibarius_ by the absence of folds on the under or fruiting surface, since the fruiting surface is smooth, especially when the plants are young or middle age. However, when the plants get quite large and old, in some cases the fruiting surface becomes very uneven from numerous folds and wrinkles, which, however, are more irregular than the folds of _C. cibarius_.