F UXGI. GA S TER OMYCE TES. 



'.,7 



Brefeld has also followed the germination of Coprinus lagopus. The mycelium 

 has at first no septa ; these make their appearance at a later period. One peculiarity 

 is that little rods are detached from special branches of the mycelium, and these were 

 sometimes erroneously described as spermatia, male organs of reproduction. They do 

 not germinate, and therefore Brefeld regards them as rudimentary gonidia, a view 

 which is supported by the fact that very similar objects make their appearance in the ger- 

 mination of the Tremellineae, only in the latter case they are capable of germination. 



Amanita nvuscaria forms a transition from the gymnocarpous Basidiomycetes to the 

 Gasteromycetes ; the lamellae are not formed in Amanita as in Coprinus on the free 

 inner surface of the pileus, for none such exists while the pileus is being formed, but 

 in ventral hyphae which are common to the stalk and the pileus ; the separate parts 

 are formed inside the uniform tissue of the rudimentary structure, and the young pileus 

 is therefore enveloped in a large volva. 



4. The GASTEROMYCETES 1 agree with the gymnocarpous Hymenomycetes 

 in the mode of forming their spores (they often produce eight on one basidium), but their 

 fructifications are all angiocarpous, the hymenia being produced inside the fructification 

 which is at first spherical ; the spores are dissemi- 

 nated by remarkable differentiations of layers of tissue 

 and the growth of certain masses of hyphal tissue, or 

 by simple rupture of the outer layers (peridia). The 

 nature of these processes which are more than usually 

 various in outward appearance may be rendered 

 intelligible by two examples. The first is taken 

 from the delicate Nidularieae. In Crucibulum 

 vulgare 2 the mycelium forms a small white flake 

 of branched hyphae, which spreads on the surface 

 of wood, On it are formed by copious branching 

 small roundish compact knots, the rudiments of the 

 fructifications ; each of these round bodies increases 

 in size by the introduction of new hyphal branches 

 and gradually assumes a cylindrical form. A section 

 through one shows the following layers of tissue ; 

 a middle lighter zone of hyphae concave above 

 divides a lowerouter portion from an upper and inner(Fig.9l, A] ; the outer layer becomes 

 the 'cup ' of the fruit (C, B, D), and soon shows two secondary zones which pass into 

 one another above ; the outer is brown and dense, and passes on the outside into the loose 

 hyphae which form the hair-like covering of the fructification. The middle separating 

 layer of the rudimentary fructification, shown clear in Fig. 91, grows to considerable 

 dimensions, and forms a kind of sac enclosing the inner layer as far as to the upper 

 portion which passes directly into the dome-like summit. The whole mass of the middle 

 layer becomes converted into a gelatinous tissue. In the inner tissue-layer isolated por- 

 tions begin at an early period to look darker (the lighter parts in Fig. 91, ), while the 

 rest becomes gelatinous. The nests which are thus formed are the ' sporangia ' or 

 peridiola. The middle layer then diminishes in thickness and is reduced to a narrow 

 girdle, an inner lining of the outer layer. A cavity forms in the middle of each spo- 

 rangium and is covered by the hymenium. Each sporangium (Sachs called them spore- 

 forming nests) is therefore lined on the inside with a hymcnial layer (Fig. 921 formed 

 of paraphyses and basidia, the latter producing each four spores on small stalks, the 

 sterigmata. If the sporangia are coloured, they are surrounded by two brown mem- 

 branes which enclose a mass of central tissue resembling a sclerotium. Then the 



!!'.. 91. Crttcibulumtnilgare. A, /?, C slightly 

 magnified in longitudinal section. D the entire 

 nearly mature Fungus in its natural size. 



1 [De Bary, Vergl. Morph. u. Biol. d. I'ilze, 1884. p. 367 (literature). 



2 Sachs in Bot. Zeit. 1885. Brefeld, loc. cit. 



