Bot. [mod.L. (Dillenius, 1741), dim. from tremulus, -ula shaking, shivering.] A genus of amorphous hymenomycetous fungi consisting of tremulous gelatinous substance, typical of the N.O. Tremellaceæ or Tremellineæ, most species of which grow on decayed wood, but a few on the ground.
Tremella Auricula is known as Earth-jelly, T. albida as Fairy Bullet. T. mesenterica is conspicuous in dead hedges in winter from its orange tint.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Table i. Tremella, Cryptogamia, Algæ.
1778. Lightfoot, Flora Scot., II. 901. Tremella purpurea.… Little red-knobb’d Tremella.
1786. Thompson, in Phil. Trans., LXXVII. 124. Any thing resembling tremella, or that kind of green matter, or water moss, which forms upon the bottom and sides of the vessel.
Hence Tremellaceous a. Bot., pertaining to the Tremellaceæ or Tremellineæ; Tremelliform a. Bot., of the form of the thallus in Tremella (Webster, 1911); Tremellin Chem. [cf. F. trémelline (Littré)], (see quot. 1868); Tremelline a. Bot., pertaining to the genus Tremella or N.O. Tremellineæ (Funk’s Stand. Dict., 1895); Tremellineous a. Bot. = tremellaceous; Tremelloid a. Bot., resembling Tremella in form or substance; Tremellose a. Bot., shaking, like Tremella, tremulous.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., *Tremellin.
1868. Watts, Dict. Chem., V. 878. Tr[emella] mesenterica was found by Brandes to contain, in the dry state,… 5 pts. of a peculiar crystallisable resinous body, called tremellin.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tremelloides,… applied to a lichen, the membranous, delicate, and almost transparent expansions of which resemble those of the Tremella: *tremelloid.
1874. Cooke, Fungi, 72. Anomalous as it may at first sight appear to include these tremelloid forms with the dust-like fungi.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 333. Calloria luteo-rubella.… Somewhat tremelloid. Ibid., 22. Leotia lubrica.… Gregarious, somewhat cæspitose, *tremellose. Ibid., 420. Tremellose, shaking like jelly, of a jelly-like consistence.
