Classification, 1 6 1 



sidered as imperfectly developed Basidio7nycetes in 

 which, the characteristic features of the group, basidia, 

 are not yet differentiated, and the stipes and pileus 

 not yet shadowed in. 



Protomycete^. 



The mycelium is for the most part intracellular in 

 the tissues of phanerogams, vaguely branched, trans- 

 versely septate, and produces numerous intercalary, 

 thick-walled resting-spores or chlamydospores, after 

 which it disappears. Gonidia are unknown. The 

 resting-spores are globose or broadly elliptical, in ger- 

 mination the thin endospore escapes entire through a 

 rupture in the thick wall of the resting-spore as a 

 sporangium filled with numerous, minute, cylindrical, 

 motionless spores which conjugate in pairs either as 

 they leave the sporangium, or by coming in contact 

 in water. After conjugation the spores germinate by 

 the emission of a slender germ-tube, which enters 

 the tissues of the host plant, and at once produces a 

 mycelium which gives origin to resting-spores. The 

 masses of resting-spores often form hard, tubercular 

 swellings on the host. 



Protomyces, linger. 



Parasitic in the subepidermal tissues of living 

 plants, usually forming coloured spots or patches, 

 resting-spores terminal or intercalary, wall thick, 

 usually consisting of two distinct layers, hyaline or 

 coloured. 



Protomyces, Unger, Exanth. p. 341 ; Plow. Brit. 

 Ured. and Ustilag. p. 300; Sacc. Syll. vii. pt. i. p^ 

 319. 



M 



