CHAPTER F. COMPARATIVE REVIEW. HFMENOMFCETES. 



35 



What function they have as hairs is still a matter of enquiry and is perhaps different 

 in different cases. Brefeld's suggestion is best worth considering, that they serve to 

 protect the sporogenous basidia, and perhaps take part in the Agaricineae in loosening 

 the appressed lamellae from the stipe. That they and especially the strikingly large 

 vesicles of the Coprini were taken by the old observers 1 for male sexual organs, and that 

 this notion once put into print was repeatedly being discussed for more than a hundred 

 years is a matter now only of a certain historical interest. The terms antheridia, 

 anthers, pollinaria owe their origin to these views. Further details respecting them 

 will be found in older treatises on the formation of spores in the Basidiomycetes 

 (see page 1 16), especially in Phoebus, in Tulasne 2 , and in the first edition of this book at 

 page 170. 



The basidia themselves, and the formation of spores on them, have been already 

 described in chapter III, pages 63, 64. We have only to add here that the club- 

 shaped form of basidium putting out 2-4 sterigmata at its upper end, such as 

 is represented in Figs. 28 and 30, and spores varying from round to fusiform, 

 are found in all the Hymenomycetes which have been examined, except the Tre- 



FlG. 140. a d Anricularia Auricula yudae. Basidia and formation of spores. Successive stages of the de- 

 velopment according to the figures, a a cylindrical terminal cell of a hypha, from which, *, several definitive basidia 

 are formed by transverse divisions ; each of the basidia sends out a long narrowly conical sterigma, c, d, from its upper 

 extremity, and the swollen apex of the sterigma is abjointed to form a spore ; x a sterigma from which the spore 

 has dropped. fKxidia sficulosa, Sommerf. Development of basidia. Four basidia have been formed from the 

 cell f by cruciform division. Younger and later stages of development are shown in the other parts of the figure : 

 j a spore. The dotted lines indicate the surface of the hy meniuiu. a d magn. 390 times, /"after Tulasne, highly 

 magnified. 



mellineae. The members of the latter group are distinguished by their variations 

 from the general rule (Fig. 140). But there are intermediate forms. Dacryomyces, 

 Calocera, Dacryomitra, Guepinia, and other genera have basidia which produce 

 two spores and are distinguished from typical Hymenomycetes (Fig. 28) only by 

 the sterigmata; these spring from a comparatively broad base and are so finely 

 drawn out and to so great a length that the basidia appear to have long pointed 

 bifurcations. But these forms afford no ground for a more decided separation of the 

 Tremellineae from the other Hymenomycetes. Tremella, Exidia, and Tremellodon 



[4] 



Micheli, Nova plant, genera.- 

 Carpologia, I, p. 163. 



-Bulliard, Champ, de France, I, pp. 39-50. 



