302 



generally the last, and when it ceases bristles are again produced 



as before. If, however, growth is still again resumed, a third set 

 of bristles is sometimes produced at the new tip (see figs, e, f). 

 It is noticeable that the bristles of the second crop, although 

 usually longer and larger than those first formed, are always 



fewer, generally only four. Only rarely are there more than three 



or four bristles in the third set. 



In the second crop five or six bristles may be formed, but 

 only four ever reach any considerable size. The paraphyses in- 

 crease correspondingly in size and length. Four of the bristles 

 grow large and long, and, though retaining in great part their 

 thinness of wall, become erect, and bear finally on their tips 

 single, large, oval spores. These fully grown paraphyses are 

 therefore basidia whose sterigmata have been developed from 

 simple, small bristles. Both the erect, upward-pointing sterig- 



L W 



mata, and the spores which they bear, are surprisingly large. 

 The sterigmata arc about i6y/ long by 4./.1 broad, while the bristles 

 to which they correspond arc only about 3/^ long and of propor- 

 tionate breadth. The spores (24/i by 16;/) are clear, granular, 

 flesh-colored, with a nucleus, (which, however, is not always 



■ n 



evident), and when ripe, arc fairly thick-walled. The sterigmata, 

 being thin-walled and slender, are very fragile, so that sometimes 

 it is no easy matter to secure preparations of them. When the 

 basidial spores are pretty well developed, the surface of the 

 hymenium becomes yellowish and powdery, instead of close, 

 smooth, and pallid, as it is while the plant is sterile or beanng 

 only conidia. 



+ * 



When the plant is not producing basidial spores, that is, when 

 it is young or after basidial spores have ceased to form, the 

 bristles of the paraphyses often bear at their tips clear, highly 

 refringcnt, colorless, spherical bodies about 0.82/i in diameter, 

 which are doubtless conidial spores. There are, therefore, two 

 fertile stages in the life history of Corliciiun Oakesii, the conidial 



and the basidial. 



The basidial spores are therefore like the conidial spores in 

 that they are both non -sexual, borne on bristles, or upon sterig- 

 mata which have been derived by development from bristles ; 



r 



but they are unlike the conidial spores in that they are only four 



