454 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



known to be formed, but several species, e.g. T. variabilis on Sugar- 

 beet, T. varians on Beet leaves, and T. gyrans on Cabbage, are 

 parasitic. The gemmifers of Sclerotium cojfeicola are rod-shaped 

 in form and thus remind one of the fruit-bodies of Clavariaceae and 

 particularly of the sterile branched structures of Anthina, a pseudo- 

 genus placed among the Clavariaceae by de Bary. 



It therefore seems not unlikely that the gemmifers of Sclerotium 

 cojfeicola, like those of Oywphalia flavida, have been derived from 

 sporophores or sporophore-rudiments which have become meta- 

 morphosed and adapted to reproduce the species by means of gemmae 

 instead of by basidiospores. 



It is indeed a remarkable fact that there should be two unrelated 

 gemmiferous species of Basidiomycetes, both of which form leaf- 

 spots on the leaves and attack the berries of the Coffee plant, and 

 in which the perfect sporophore has been either almost wholly or 

 wholly suppressed. It may well be that, in the tropics, in the course 

 of time, yet other gemmiferous Basidiomycetes will be discovered. 



