CHAPTER III. — SPORES OF FUNGI. 73 



shown, in the basidia of Empusa and species of Entomophthora. The ripe spores 

 are thrown to a distance of 2-3 cm. and adhere by the remains of the ejected proto- 

 plasm to the bodies against which they strike. The ripe spores of Coprinus, especially 

 C. stercorarius, are abjected from the basidia by the same mechanism, as Brefeld 

 informs us 1 . They are attached, as Fig. 30 shows in the case of other Hymenomy- 

 cetes, to the extremities of very slender sterigmata which spring four together from 

 the apex of a basidium. The four spores of each basidium are abjected at the same 

 moment, and a small drop of fluid which issues from the sterigma shows that it is 

 open at the apex, while a small quantity is also seen to be attached to each spore as 

 it drops. The similarity in the basidia and in the mode of formation of the spores 

 in all the Hymenomycetes and other facts also make it probable that the process of 

 abjection is widely spread, perhaps occurs universally, in this group of Fungi ; but 

 more extended investigations are still needed to clear up this point. 



The following are some of the other facts just referred to. It has long been known 

 that the hymenium of a Hymenomycete when turned upwards becomes gradually 

 sprinkled over with free spores, and if it is turned downwards, spores fall from it in 

 large quantities. Some of them fall in an exactly vertical direction, as appears from 

 the fact that the spores which fall on a piece of paper placed under the free hymenium 

 of an Agaric are arranged in radial lines answering exactly to the radial arrangement 

 of the lamellae on the pileus. 



These phenomena are in themselves quite compatible with simple abscision as 

 described in the preceding pages, but they do not exclude the supposition that the 

 spores were abjected with some small exertion of force, as Brefeld has also 

 pointed out 2 . On the other hand a dispersion of the spores is observed in these 

 Fungi in other directions than that of the vertical. The statement of Bulliard 3 

 has recently been confirmed by Hoffmann and de Seynes, that many spores fall from 

 the hymenium of an Agaric when turned downwards far beyond the line which 

 corresponds to the margin of the pileus. Hoffmann saw white clouds of spores 

 rise like smoke from Polyporus destructor when there was a slight movement 

 in the air, ' but when the air in the closed chamber was perfectly still no spores 

 reached a glass plate hung at a distance of only three quarters of an inch above 

 the plant, while those which fell on a glass plate two inches and a half beneath 

 the Fungus covered nearly uniformly up to the margin a space of more than six 

 times the circumference of the Fungus.' Other Hymenomycetes gave similar results. 

 These observations point to abjection of the spores, but do not absolutely prove it, 

 because the facts described might be due to movements of torsion in the sterigmata, 

 such as were noticed above on page 72. 



Lastly, it may be observed that the abjection of the spores in Leitgeb's Completoria i 

 may also have been caused by the mechanism which has already been described ; 

 Leitgeb's own explanation I have not been able to understand. 



Section XVIII. 3. Endogenous spore-formation (Endogene Sporenbildung), 

 Many spores are produced inside mother-cells, the wall of which remains intact till the 

 spores are ripe and forms a spore-receptacle or sporangium. 



The sporangia are mostly acrogenous cells which are either persistent on their 

 sporangiophore, or are removed from it by abscision, as in Cystopus and other 



1 Schimmelpilze, III, p. 65. 



2 lb. p. 132. 



3 Champignons de France, I, p. 51. 



4 Sitzungsber. d. Wiener Acad. Bd. 84, July, iS 



