334 DIVISION II. COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 



rhythm of their development, in accordance with the remarks in the preceding 

 paragraphs, if the statement that gonidia occur on the mycelia and compound 

 sporophores of the Hymenomycetes proved to be true. The statement has been made 

 only in a few isolated cases. The supposed gonidia mentioned by Oersted in Agaricus 

 variabilis, P. are strictly of this kind, also those of A. racemosus, P., A. vulgaris, P., 

 Fistulina hopatica and Polyporus Ptychogaster, Ludwig. My own older remarks 

 on Nyctalis perhaps do not strictly or perhaps do not at all belong to this connection, 

 but they may nevertheless be mentioned here. 



In the case of all these statements it is distinctly to be observed, that no one of 

 them puts the real nature of these gonidia or spores as they may also be called, and 

 their connection with the particular species of Hymenomycetes which forms basidia, 

 beyond doubt, for in no case is it clear whether they reproduce the hymenomycetous 

 form or something else, or, as may possibly happen, nothing at all ; usually the first 

 beginnings of germination in the presumed gonidia have not been observed. The 

 possibility is nowhere excluded that they belong to parasites of the particular 

 Hymenomycetes. 



The slender stipe of Agaricus racemosus, Pers. which springs from a sclerotium 

 terminates in fully developed specimens in a pileus, which according to old existing 

 descriptions and figures has the typical structure of the Agaricineae. The stipe is 

 beset throughout its whole length with short hair-like spreading branches, which 

 were compared by Fries * and Berkeley 2 to the sporophores of the form-genus Stilbum, 

 because, like them, they abjoint at their extremities numerous spores (gonidia) arranged 

 in rows and forming together a small gelatinous head. In other specimens the 

 branching is more irregular and the primary stipe also ends in a head of gonidia. 

 The gonidia according to Tulasne 3 are ellipsoid or elongated in form and produce 

 long germ-tubes when sown in water. 



On the extremities of short mycelial strands of Agaricus vulgaris Fr. Hoffmann* 

 saw here and there small cylindrical cells serially abjointed, and called them spermatia. 



Short non-septate erect simple sporophores rise according to Oersted 5 from the 

 mycelium of Agaricus variabilis, P. and abjoint ellipsoid spores simultaneously in 

 a small head at their extremities, after the manner of Corda's form-genus Cephalo- 

 sporium. 



De Seynes observed a formation of 'gonidia' often in large quantities on the pileus 

 of Fistulina hepatica ; these were abjointed singly or in tufts close beside one another 

 or in rows, and were of ellipsoid form, usually about 8 p. in length, and furnished with 

 very thick brownish-red membranes. They were borne usually on relatively slender 

 copiously branched hyphae, which appeared in many cases to spring as branches from 

 the thicker hyphae of the substance of the pileus, and were found chiefly on the upper 

 side of the pileus, sometimes on its surface, sometimes at a depth of a centimetre in its 

 tissue, spreading through it oftentimes in enormous quantities. They were found in 

 every one of the many specimens examined by De Seynes from Europe, America, and 

 Asia. De Seynes observed only very feeble and almost doubtful attempts at germina- 

 tion in old material. My own eaijy notes on the subject, which I have had no 

 opportunity of completing, confirm De Seynes's statements to a great extent, but add, 

 that the hyphae which produce the gonidia may also occur on the under surface of 

 the pileus and between the tubuli of the hymenium, and that they were not found 



1 Epicris, p. 90. 2 Crypt. Bot. p. 365. 



3 Fung. Carpol. I, p. 110. Bot. Ztg. 1856, p. 158. 



5 Oversigten d. Verhandl. d. k. Dan. Ges. d. Wissensch. Jan. 1865. 



