305 



came out in the July number of the "Revue Mycologique.'' In 

 this paper, under the head of Alairodiscus Oakcsii, B. & C, he 

 says that the sterile cells of tlic hymenium are of two sorts ; some 

 are simply basidia which have not yet attained their full develop- 

 ment ; the others, much more slender, and attenuated at both 

 ends, bear at their tips more or less spiniform protuberances; 



■ 



that these last might easily be taken for paraphyses, were it not 

 that he had been able to determine that they appear in the 

 young specimen at the same time as the basidia and never pre- 

 cede them ; that it is, therefore, impossible to recognize in these 

 organs the homologues of those filaments which are found in the 

 thec^ of the Discomycetes. He says, further, that in the Ameri- 

 can specimens which he examined, the spine-bearing cells were 

 about the same in size as sterile basidia. He therefore concludes 

 that these are basidia which never can produce spores, and that 

 they have become sterile because of some other function of which 



we are ignorant. 



Now, since I have seen many of these spine-bearing cells in 

 specimens so young that not a basidium could be seen, these 

 spinous cells do precede the basidia. Furthermore, I have seen, 

 and in the figures I have tried to show, the development of ba- 

 sidia from these spine-bearing cells themselves. It is by the re- 

 sumption of growth on the part of some of these bristly cells that 

 the basidia are formed, and from the delicate little bristles the 

 thin-wallcd, large sterigmata are subsequently developed. 



From my own observations, which can be confirmed at any 

 time by an examination of the preparations which I have made 

 of the various stages in tlie development of the basidia and bris- 

 tle-cells, I am convinced that, in spite of the general accuracy of 

 his account, it must be wrong on this point; that what have 

 always been called paraphyses are paraphyses, and that from 

 these the basidia are directly developed. 



Another genus even more remarkable than Corticiiiin, also 

 belonging to the Thelephorcne, is that called by Saccardo, Mich- 

 enera. There is only one species known in the United States, 

 and this is apparently not common. Like the Corticia, it grows 

 upon the bark of trees. It possesses a well-marked and almost, 



