FUNGI. 219 



days. At first they are perfectly spherical, when 

 they merely oscillate ; then they revolve slowly, and, 

 as this goes on, a single turn of a spiral makes 

 itself visible, and the bodies whirl round with great 

 rapidity, but with some intermission. Judging from 

 the presence of the eddy round these bodies whilst 

 whirling, they are probably provided with cilia, but 

 from the extreme minuteness of the bodies them- 

 selves their presence cannot be satisfactorily demon- 

 strated. The whirling is sometimes so strong that 

 when they attach themselves to the spores they twist 

 them round. 



In the case of Coprimis radiattis, and some agarics, 

 the cystidia fall bodily out of the hymenium on to 

 the ground, and it is upon the moist earth that 

 fertilization is generally carried out. 



This circumstantial account would furnish a solu- 

 tion of the mystery of reproduction in the agaricini, 

 in great part ; but, unfortunately, although the full 

 details have been before the public for something 

 like seventeen years, we are not aware that they 

 have ever been confirmed by any competent observer. 

 However possible, and even probable, any such reve- 

 lations may be, they are of such a nature that they 

 cannot be generally accepted as fact without con- 

 firmation. Just as well might we accept ^Ersted's 

 hypothesis, which is still older, and yet not confirmed. 

 He professed to have seen oocysts, or elongated reni- 

 form cells, springing up like rudimentary branches 

 of the filaments of the mycelium, in a species of 

 agaric, and enclosing an abundant protoplasm, if not 

 a nucleus. At the base of these oocysts appeared 



