Class BASIDIOMYCETES. 
Order UstILaGInaLes.. (Smuts.) 
Order UrEpinALEs. (Rusts.) 
Order TREMELLALES. (Gelatinous fungi.) 
Order HymeEnIALES. (Mushrooms, etc.) 
Order GAsTRALES. (Puff balls, etc.) 
In case the slime moulds and Bacteria are not to be relegated 
to the domain of animal life, as has been time and again suggested, 
they would properly form classes lower than the Phycomycetes, 
viz.: MYXOMYCETES with the Order Acrasiales, Plasmodio- 
phorales and Myxogastrales; and SCHIZOMYCETES with the 
Orders Eubacteriales and Myxobacteriales. * 
There still remains the systematic position of the Lichens. 
Since the coérdination of the orders of the entire phylum Thal- 
lophyta is far from being settled owing to the limitations of our 
knowledge, and since the two main series, separated from each 
other by physiological rather than structural or morphological char- 
acters, are held apart largely as a matter of convenience, it may be 
better to likewise hold the lichens apart as a separate group, 
though the reasons therefor are much less apparent than in the 
separation of the algae and the fungi. The lichens are distinc- 
tively fungi and there is no more real reason for holding them 
apart from the fungous orders with which they intergrade than 
there would be in separating other parasitic forms in distinct series 
because of some supposed mutualism between the parasite and its 
host. The fact that the lichens have been treated apart from 
their real alliances has doubtless been the cause of some part of 
the confusion relating to them. The orders Pyrenolichenales, 
Discolichenales, Hymenolichenales and Gastrolichenales may 
therefore be sandwiched in among their nearest alliances in the 
conspectus. If held apart in a distinct series it must be under- 
stood as a matter of expediency and convenience and not an indi- 
cation of natural affinity among diverse groups such as they really 
are. 
9 DrEcemBeEr, 1896. 
* Cf. Thaxter, Bot. Gazette, 17: 389-406. D 1892. 
