258 M. C. COOKE, NOTES ON PODISOMA, 



orange endochrome from the original tubes, and measure from *01 

 to -013 of a millemetre in length. They appear in immense num- 

 bers on the surface of the fungus, and when detached from their 

 spicules fall upon the ground, or on any object which may be 

 beneath them, in the same manner as the spores of an Agaric are 

 dispersed. So freely are they deposited that they may be collected 

 on paper or a slip of glass like a fine gold-coloured powder. "These 

 bodies evidently represent," says M. Tulasne, " the last stage, and 

 normal aim of the vegetation of the pretended bilocular sporidia 

 (protospores) of the Podisoma, and alone justly deserve the name 

 of spores." 



Again, these secondary spores (teleutospores) regarded by Tulasne 

 as the true spores, are capable of germination, and many of them 

 will be found to have germinated on the surface of the Podisoma, 

 whence they have originated. The germ filament which they pro- 

 duce springs habitually from the side, at a short distance from the 

 hilum, which indicates the point of attachment to the original 

 spicule. These filaments will attain to from fifteen or twenty times 

 the diameter of the spore in length before branching, and are in 

 themselves exceedingly delicate. 



It should also be remarked that the spore-bearing tubes, or fila- 

 ments, which 'issue from the primary bilocular spores (protospores), 

 are not always simple, but sometimes furcate ; and the cells which 

 are ultimately formed at their extremities, though producing filiform 

 processes, do not always generate secondary spores (teleutospores) 

 at their apices. The processes become very greatly elongated, when 

 they are thus barren, and may fulfil some other purpose. Gas- 

 parrini observed the same thing in the Podisoma which he ex- 

 amined.* 



The whole process of germination thus described in Podisoma 

 is so similar to that of other Uredines, especially Triphragmium 

 and Puccinia, that we cannot admit a doubt of their intimate al- 

 liance. Tulasne, mentally associating these Tremelloid Uredines, 

 with the true Tremellas, has applied to the bilocular spores the 

 objectionable term " basidia." It were better that some such term 

 as "protospores " should be employed in order to prevent confusion. 

 The secondary spores, produced on the germinating filaments of 

 the protospores may be fitly characterized as "teleutospores." In 



* " Osservazioni sulla generazione delle spore nel Podisoma fuscuro. :" lower 

 fig. 7. 



