300 DIVISION II. COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 



The foregoing account agrees in the main with Hoffmann's statements, only that 

 observer describes an intercellular passage in the centre of the rosettes instead of 

 the winding hypha, which it resembles in shape. In the species which I have 

 examined the intercellular passage has evidently a wall of its own, which is even 

 separated here and there by intercellular spaces from those of the adjoining .cells ; 

 this is shown with more than usual distinctness in Lactarius subdulcis and L. deliciosus ; 

 but it is possible that the species differ from one another in this respect. The structure 

 in Russula foetens var. lactiflua, Corda 1 is certainly very like that here described. I do 

 not attempt to determine what is the cause of the difference between Corda's account 

 and the one in the text above. Schleiden's statement that the latex of Agaricus 

 deliciosus is ' decidedly contained in small groups of parenchymatous cells ' is quite 

 unfounded, and the same may be said of Kiitzing's 2 confused account of these parts. 



It may not be out of place to state here, that laticiferous tubes or long-membered 

 hyphae have also been found by De Seynes in striated hyphal tissue of the sporophore 

 of Fistulina hepatica, which otherwise is uniform in structure. Similar organs, that is, 

 long tubes filled with dense and often glistening cell-contents, occur in some other 

 fleshy mushrooms, especially Agaricineae, as in Agaricus praecox and A. olearius 

 according to Tulasne ; they require further investigation. 



Formations of a peculiar kind were found by Hoffmann 3 on the armilla of Amanita 

 muscaria, but have been searched for in vain in allied species. The outer surface of 

 this organ is covered by a thin layer of a yellowish greasy structureless substance. 

 If this is placed in water a number of microscopically small bodies, with a glistening 

 oily appearance and with the shape of small cylindrical rods ending usually in a knob, 

 emerge quickly from it. They display a lively undulating and trembling movement, 

 and changes of form such as elongation and abbreviation, forming of loops, and so on. 

 If left to the effects of the water they cease to move after twenty-four hours or some 

 longer period, and generally, but not always, assume the form of hollow spheres with 

 a wall glistenting like oil and watery contents. These bodies consist of a fatty or 

 resinous substance soluble in alcohol and ether mixed with a small quantity of 

 another substance not soluble in those fluids and turning yellow with iodine. They 

 resemble in appearance the motile formations observed in Beneke's myelin (protagon- 

 mixtures)* when placed in water. There is no reason to suppose these rods to be 

 special organs of Amanita muscaria. The substance from which they are developed may 

 perhaps be a product of decomposition of elements of the tissue, which were destroyed 

 by the expansion of the pileus. 



SECTION LXXXVIII. As regards the structure of that part of the sporophore 

 which bears the hymenium, and which sometimes receives the special name of 

 hymenophorum, it is to be observed that the hymenium itself consists of the basidia 

 and the cells which accompany them, and that both are the terminal members of 

 copiously branching hyphae and are placed in a vertical position on the hymenial 

 surface. The description in section XII of the construction of the sporophore 

 generally applies equally to the structure, interlacing, and direction of these hyphae 

 at the commencement of their course. Their ramifications become more numerous, 

 delicate and compact the nearer they approach the hymenium ; immediately under- 

 neath it they are excessively abundant, more rich in protoplasm than the rest of the 



1 Corda, Icon. IV, t. X. 

 * Phil. Bot. I, p. 247. 



3 See Bot. Ztg. 1853, p. 857, and 1859, P- 2I2 - ^ e ^T > n Flora, 1862, p. 364. Fr. Darwin 

 in Quart. Joum. of Micr. Sc., new series, XVIII (1878), p. 74. 



4 See Beneke, Studien ii. Gallenbestandtheile, &c., Giessen, 1862. 



