2l6 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



mycelium, or underground threads. In order to 

 comprehend the different theories, it is necessary to 

 premise that the spore-bearing surface consists of 

 three kinds of elongated cells, which are packed side 

 by side. The most numerous of these are the basidia 

 (Fig. 38, b), cylindrical cells bearing at the apex four 

 little points, or sterigmata, each of which, normally, 



supports a single spore. Be- 

 side these are smaller bodies, 

 called paraphyses (Fig. 38, a), 

 which De Seynes considers to 

 be basidia arrested in their 

 development, or atrophied 

 basidia. Finally, there are 

 clavate or, sometimes, spindle- 

 shaped bodies, larger than the 

 basidia, called cystidia (Fig. 

 38, f) ; and these are regarded 

 by De Seynes as hypertrophied 

 basidia ; so that, according to 



KiG. 38. — Basidia and Cystidia. 11 i i • 1 



a, paraphyses; b, basidia and him, all thC three arC Simplv 

 spores ; c, cystidia. /■ /• 1 



lorms ot the same organ, true 

 or fertile basidia, atrophied basidia, and hypertrophied 

 basidia. Our interest will centre chiefly in the 

 cystidia. 



Micheli seems to have been the first who observed 

 particular vesicular organs on the hymenium of 

 Copri?ms, which were doubtless the cystidia. After- 

 wards Bulliard recognized them, and considered 

 them to be organs of a sexual apparatus, and a 

 sort of spermatic vesicles. Leveille first called them 

 cystidia, but Klotsch and Corda called them boldly 



