The Genus Dacrymyces

A key to the genera of the Dacrymycetaceae and a taxonomic discussion of the various genera, including Dacrymyces, may be found in the preceding paper (Kennedy, 1958). There the methods employed in the study of these fungi and the terms used in the descriptions were explained. When Nees established the genus, which he spelled Dacryomyces, in 1816, he described the sporocarp as a fleshy or gelatinous substance, round or discoid in form, bright yellow or red in color and composed of interwoven filaments with spores. It included one species, Dacryomyces stillatus. Fries, in 1822, added to the description the characteristics of homogeneous consistency and spores formed on all sides of the sporocarp. Since then the boundaries of the genus have exhibited great flexibility, expanding or contracting according to the number of other genera recognized for the family. For example, in Neuhoff's (1936) treatment Dacrymyces, while not defined, includes at least species belonging to the genera Ditiola, Guepiniopsis and Femsjonia, and one gains the impression that he would place species of nearly all the genera but Calocera there. On the other hand Martin's (1952) concept is much narrower, because of the recognition of ten other genera in the family. The concept of the genus presented in this paper was arrived at by defining eight other genera for the Dacrymycetaceae. Such a procedure leads to a view of the genus Dacrymyces which is somewhat negative in nature, for one thinks of it as a group of species that does not fit the pattern of the other, more easily defined, genera. Thus we find that, except for allowance of considerable variation in external basidiocarp form, the present description differs little from that of Fries. Dacrymyces still includes the largest number of species but seems now to comprise a natural group. 1 Based on Part II of a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the State University of Iowa,