CHAPTER V. — COMPARATIVE REVIEW. — BASIDIOMYCETES. 341 



The balance of argument has been already shown in the text to be in favour of 

 considering the Hymenomycetes as united in a single series with the Tremellineae 

 and these with the series of Ascomycetes through the Uredineae. The details of 

 the connection, the question whether it is effected by several species and which 

 those species are, have yet to be settled. 



Certain observations gave rise some time since 1 to the conjecture that there were 

 close relations between the Basidiomycetes and the Ascomycetes, the Basidiomycetes 

 being the gonidial forms of perfect existing Ascomycetes. The conjecture originated 

 in the observation of indubitable asci in pustule-like swellings in old lamellae of 

 Agaricus melleus, and in phenomena observed in Nyctalis and mentioned on page 335. 

 The finding of perithecia, which according to Tulasne are connected with the star- 

 shaped spores of N. asterophora, was rather in favour of this view than against it. 

 I regarded these Nyctalis-spores and the asci of A. melleus as organs of the particular 

 species of the Hymenomycetes, because they seemed to proceed directly from hyphae 

 of the pileus. At present I agree with Tulasne, as was intimated at page 336, in 

 thinking that it is most probably a case of parasitism, and I spoke of the ascogenous 

 hyphae of A. melleus at page 266 by their parasitic name of Endomyces. But since 

 the parasitic nature of Endomyces and the defect in the former observations have 

 not yet been shown, this brief further notice of the subject may be permitted in 

 this place. In case the earlier statements should be confirmed, and it should be shown 

 that Tulasne's perithecia belong to Nyctalis asterophora, the views here advanced would 

 be subject to some alteration, since it would be necessary to assume that the Basidio- 

 mycetes are phylogenetically connected with the Ascomycetes, not at one point only, 

 but at several. But in the present state of our knowledge it is difficult to admit any 

 more points of connection in the ontogenetic cycle of the species of Ascomycetes with 

 the greater number of Basidiomycetes. 



Literature (see also p. 116). 

 a. Hymenomycetes. 

 The works of Persoon, E. Fries, Corda (Icones fungorum), Tulasne (Carpologia I), are 

 the chief works to be consulted. Only the more important original treatises 

 are cited below. Some works have been noticed already in the text. 



F. Nees V. ESENBECK, Plantar, mycetoidarum, &c. Evolutio (Entw. d. Agaricus 



volvaceus) in N. Act. Acad. Leop. Carol. XVI, pars I. 

 JOS. Schmitz, Ueber d. Bildung neuer Theile bei d. Hymenomyceten ; — Id., Ueber d. 



Langen-Ausdehnung bei d. Pileaten (Linnaea, XVI, 1842) ; — Id., Ueber Entw. Bau 



u. Wachsthum von Thelephora sericea u. hirsuta (Linnaea, XII, 1843, P- 4 X 7)- 

 BONORDEN, Allgem. Mykologie, pp. 156-196 et passim ; — Id., Beobachtungen ii. d. Bau 



d. Agaricinen (Bot. Ztg. 1858, p. 201). 

 H. Hoffmann, Pollinarien u. Spermatien von Agaricus (Bot. Ztg. 1856, p. 137) ; — Id., 



Beitr. z. Entwicklungsgesch. u. Anatomie d. Agaricinen (Bot. Ztg. i860, p. 389) ; — 



Id., Icones analyticae fungorum, I-IV, Giessen, 1861-1865. 

 De Bary, Zur Kenntn. einiger Agaricinen (Bot. Ztg. 1859, p. 385). 

 J. De Seynes, Organisation des Champignons superieurs (Ann. d. sc. nat. ser. 5, I, 



p. 269) ; — Id., Recherches sur 1. vdgetaux inferieurs, I. Des Fistulines, Paris, 1874. 

 Tulasne, Obs. sur l'organisation des Tremellinees (Ann. d. sc. nat. seY. 3, XIX, 



p. 194) ; — Id., Nouvelles notes sur les fungi Tremellini et leurs allies (Ann. d. 



sc. nat. ser. 5, XV). See also ser. 5, IV. 

 M. Woronin, Exobasidium Vaccinii (Ber. d. naturf. Ges. Freiburg, 1867). 

 O. Brefeld, Bot. Unters. ii. Schimmelpilze, III; — Id., Bot. Unters. u. Hefepilze, V, 



Leipzig, 1883. 



1 Bot. Ztg. 1859. P- 4°4- 



