304 



pointed out. The "incipient asci " and " large sporidia " were, 

 however, later recognized by Cooke to be basidia containing oil 

 globules resembling sporidia. The " nodulose paraphyses" are, 

 apparently, the moniliform paraphyses which I hav^c just described. 

 The only other notice of C. Oakcsii which needs special at- 

 tention is in the paper by Massce, on the Thelephorca^, pub- 

 lished in the Linnaean Society's Journal, xxv, I20. He says, in 

 C. Oakcsii, or, as he calls it, Aleurodiscus Oakcsii, " in additicui 

 to normal tctrasporous basidia, which are rare, there are numc- 

 , rous elliptical gonidia produced singly on thick gonidiophores, 



whereas in Alcicrodiscus Michciieri I have found lar^e colored 

 gonidia." 



In the specimens that I examined, normal basidia were com- 

 mon enough, although not always in fruit. I have seen all the 

 stages from the young and bare basidia to those bearing four ripe 

 spores on erect sterigmata, as 1 have already described and fig- 

 ured. I could find no trace of "thick gonidiophores," and the 

 only normal thing which at all resembled them was, as I have 

 said, those hyphae whose tips were so constricted as to be bead- 

 like. But comparing these with Massee's figures, it is evident that 

 these are altogether too simple and commonplace to be what he 

 means. I saw a single basidium, large, thick, and somewhat ir- 

 regular, upon wliich was a single stout sterigma bearing a spore 

 (see fig. h). The occasional abortion of two or three of the four 

 sterigmata has often been observed in other genera of funoi. If 

 wholesale abortion had taken place in Massee's specimens he 

 would naturally have found that tctrasporous basidia were rare, 

 and that "large elliptical gonidia produced singly on thick goni- 

 diophores" took their place. Unless such a thing had occurred, 

 or unless Massce was so fortunate as to get .specimens of a stage 

 different from any that I have seen, I can understand neither his 

 descriptions nor his figures. Surely the ii^w moniliform hyphce, 

 thin- walled, slender and clear, are not the gonidiophores of 

 which he spcaLs, and we must choose between these and aborted 

 basidia if we are to accept his account. 



Just as these observations were ready for publication, my at- 

 tention was called to a paper by Patouillard entitled, " Quelques 

 champignons de la Chine re'coltes oar M. I'Abbe Delaw." which 



