CHAPTER V. — COMPARATIVE REVIEW. — BASIDIOMYCETES. 33 1 



sporangia no germinating spore was observed among the multitude of gemmae with 

 their germ-tubes, only the successive disorganisation of the spores. 



Section XCII. If putting Sphaerobolus on one side we consider the course of 

 development in the Basidiomycetes which have been described above and which have 

 been carefully examined, we find that in the simplest case, which is sometimes the one 

 exclusively observed, the germinating basidiospore gives rise directly to a mycelium, 

 the branches of which become sporophores producing basidia without the interposition 

 of any special intermediate members at all comparable with archicarps. 



The circumstances which, as was intimated above, may produce complications 

 in this scheme are of the following kind. In describing the germination of the 

 basidiospores of Exobasidium and Dacryomyces in pages 328 and 329, it was stated 

 that the spore can under certain circumstances produce a great abundance of sprouts, 

 or may abjoint small cells acrogenously from short germ-tubes. These small cells 

 are round in Dacryomyces and about 2 fi long, and in nutrient solutions they give rise 

 to germ-tubes, which may develope into filamentous and often large mycelia. These 

 mycelial hyphae and those also which proceed from basidiospores may abjoint small 

 cells in crowded tufts, which differ from the first in being ellipsoidal or rod-like in form, 

 but agree with them in giving rise to a mycelium with similar products. We learn 

 from Brefeld especially that similar phenomena have been observed in many 

 Tremellineae in forms which vary according to the species. The mycelium from 

 which these cells are abjointed may then produce the basidia-bearing compound 

 sporophores of Dacryomyces. The cells in question are, according to this description, 

 spores, but we may also call them by analogy gonidia, if we wish to maintain the 

 traditional use of the word spore for basidiogenetic cells. 



Gonidia in the same sense of the word and with essentially the same characters 

 occur also in some Tremellineae on the sporophores which produce basidia ; such are 

 the cells capable of germination in form like a bent rod which are abjointed at the slender 

 extremities of hyphae in depressions with thickened and rounded margins in the 

 compound sporophores of Tremella Cerasi, Tul. The small round cells also 2 /z in 

 diameter, which according to Tulasne are abjointed like small heads on the extremities 

 of much branched hyphae in the hymenial layer of Tremella mesenterica, may be of the 

 same kind, though their germination has not yet been observed. Another form of goni- 

 dium, distinguished by the name of gemma and produced no doubt by external causes 

 which have yet to be ascertained, is found in the compound sporophores of Dacryo- 

 myces deliquescens. The presence of these cells is shown from without by their making 

 the parts of the sporophores where they are formed turn from their normal clear amber- 

 yellow colour to a dark orange. The hyphae swell and their cells become filled with 

 a densely granular substance of a dark orange colour. The cells separate from one 

 another when placed in water, and each may then give rise to a mycelium with the 

 characters which have been described above. Klebs especially has obtained compound 

 sporophores producing basidia from gemmae cultivated on microscopic slides. 



The mycelia produced in nutrient solutions from the basidiospores of most of 

 the Coprini which have been examined and of Typhula may form small rod-like 

 gonidia, like those just described in the Tremellineae, before they arrive at the 

 formation of typical compound sporophores. These are long slender filiform 

 cylindrical bodies formed, often several side by side, in a tuft at the extremities or 



