250 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



It seems that, owing to their possessing basidia, the Hymeno- 

 mycetes are better adapted to ])roducc large fruit-bodies which 

 liberate their spores into the air, than Ascomycetes. In large 

 fruit-bodies the hymcnium of llymenomycetes can be much 

 more folded than that of Ascomycetes, and therefore can produce 

 a much larger number of spores. It may be on this account that 

 the Hymenomycetes have become the dominant fungi upon the 

 veofetable mould of fields and forests. 



