ORIGIN OF THE BASIDIOMYCETES. 439. 
believe since its publieation—the substance of which is con- 
‘sidered by most mycologists as being a much later conception. 
* Palmam, qui meruit, ferat." 
Tulasne says:—“ On sera certainement frappé comme nous 
de la ressemblance singulière qu’offrent les crosses fertiles de 
l'Hypochnus purpureus avec le promycelium des Puecinies et 
autres Urediuées, c'est à dire avec ces germes d'abord clavi- 
formes, puis cireinants et spiculiféres, dont nous avons autrefois 
donné des figures dans ce Recueil (ser. 4°, t. 11. pls. 7-12). La 
similitude n'est méme pas moindre pour les corps réproducteurs, 
spores ou sporidies, et nous trouvons certainement ià un example 
des analogies qui peuvent relier deux membres, d'ailleurs tres- 
dissembiables, d'une méme famille végétale ” (3. 296). 
Quite recently Juel, a Swedish botanist, has demonstrated that 
the somewhat widely diffused, and not by any means uncom- 
mon fungus called Stilbum vulgare, Tode, the type of the large 
genus Stilbum, Tode, located in the Hyphomycetes, is indeed a 
typical Protobasidiomycete, having the characteristic transversely 
septate basidia, each segment of the basidium producing a single 
basidiospore (4). 
The segmentation of the basidium is preceded by nuclear 
division, each segment containing a single nucleus which again 
divides, one nucleus passing into the spore, the other remaining 
in the basidium (PI. 15. figs. 2-6). 
Juel examined other species belonging to Stilbum, and found 
that they did not present the Protobasidiomycete features 
found in S. vulgare ; and suggests that the generic name Stzlbum 
should be retained for those members proved to belong to the 
Protobasidiomycetes, and that another genus should be estab- 
lished for those members of the old genus which, on account of 
their structure, have yet to be considered as belonging to the 
Hyphomycetes. 
The genus Stilbum, as originally understood, contains about 
seventy species; all are minute, and the general structure may be 
compared to that of a sheaf of corn. The hyph are arranged 
in a parallel fascicle, the free tips bearing the conidia spreading 
on all sides, and forming a more or less globose fertile head, 
terminating an elongated slender stem, the whole resembling a 
drumstick in miniature. Every part is compact and firm, the 
component hyphe being to some extent cemented together by 
mucilage. 
2K2 
