CHAPTER V. — COMPARATIVE REVIEW. — BASIDIOMYCETES. 3^3 



as small branches on the mycelium of Agaricus (Crepidotus) variabilis, P., on which 

 . 1-2 slender adjacent branches supposed to be antheridiae usually did not lay themselves, 

 while the oosphere, without experiencing any further changes, became surrounded by 

 a hyphal tissue which developed into the pileus. 



The question was subsequently resumed in connection with specimens of Coprinus 

 cultivated on microscopic slides, especially by Reess 3 , who thought he found spermatia 

 in the small non-germinating ' rods,' and archicarps in the swollen extremities of the 

 branches, but without clearly making out the participation of the two kinds of organs 

 in the formation of the compound sporophores. Van Tieghem 2 studied the species 

 of Coprinus about the same time, and found spermatia in the small rod-like gonidial 

 cells, and also discovered archicarps, which were fertilised by conjugation with the 

 spermatia and then developed in very characteristic manner into compound sporo- 

 phores ; he even obtained a hybrid form by crossing the two species, but he very 

 soon withdrew all these statements 3 and has adhered from that time to the views 

 expressed above. It was unfortunate that the declaration of this change of opinion 

 coincided to the day with the first publication of Brefeld's researches, and we must 

 allow him the merit of finally clearing up the matter, because, as regards Van Tieghem, 

 it would always have been a question which of the two diametrically opposite results 

 arrived at within a space of ten months was after all the right one. 



Section XCIII. We have no complete observations on the course of the 

 development in the many other Hymenomycetes and Gastromycetes. But all that is 

 known of them favours the view that their history is in general the same as that of 

 the species with zvhich we are perfectly acquainted in the essential points above described, 

 nor is anything known which could be a sufficient reason for objecting to this view. 

 Besides the agreement in form and structure in the mature state, there is the un- 

 varying fact that the commencements of the compound sporophores wherever dis- 

 covered are formed, without the interposition of intermediate members, from hyphal 

 bundles of the mycelium which have exactly the same origin as those which remain 

 purely vegetative. R. Hartig's careful observations on the wood-destroying Polyporeae, 

 Thelephoreae, and Hydneae should be especially mentioned in this place in addition 

 to the cases noticed in the foregoing descriptions. 



Secondly, the little that is known of the germination of the spores and of the first 

 products of germination accords with the observations to which attention has been 

 drawn above. This is not much ; the spores of many Hymenomycetes when sown 

 put out simple or branched germ-tubes ; non-germinating ; rods ' are formed, according 

 to Eidam's observation 4 , on Agaricus coprophilus, Bull, on the first commencement of 

 mycelia grown in a nutrient fluid, and they appear in strings that are crowded 

 together in tufts and twisted into curls and entangled with one another. In the great 

 majority of the Gastromycetes the first products of germination have not been 

 hiiherto observed or the supposed observations are very doubtful 5 ; germination may 

 in their case depend on special and hitherto unknown conditions, or the circumstances 

 may perhaps be the same as in Sphaerobolus. 



No doubt would be raised as to the agreement of all the Basidiomycetes in the 



1 Phys. Med. Ges. z. Erlangen, 14 Dec. 1874. — Pringsheim's Jahrb. X, p. 179. 



2 Comptes rendus de l'Acad. d. Sc. Paris, 80 (1875), p. 373. 

 ' J Ibid., 81, p. 879 (15 Nov. 1875). 



4 Bot. Ztg. 1875, p. 649. 



5 See Hoffmann in Bot. Ztg. 1859, V- - M 7- 



