220 Fungi. 



found to produce little points or spicules each of which 

 bears a spore at the apex. Other cells, generally a little 



larger, bear no spores. These have been supposed to be 

 the male organs, corresponding to the antheridia in Mouses 

 or the stamens in flowering plants. The impregnation 

 may also be supposed to take place in the mycelium, in a 

 mode analogous to that of some Algse, the contents of 

 the cells of one filament being mingled with those of 

 the cells of another by means of the previous union of the 

 contiguous cell walls. This would nearly correspond in 

 point of time with the fertilization of Ferns, it occurring in 

 them in an early stage of the existence of the plant. It 

 is not improbable, indeed, that both these methods may 

 be found to have place in this large and exceedingly 

 diversified class of plants. The typical number of the 

 Cryptogamia is seen in the arrangement of the spores in 

 many Agarics. If we take a small portion of one of the 

 lamellae of a Panceolus and place it carefully under a 

 microscope it will be seen that the spores are arranged in 

 fours, i. e. : each spore-bearing cell gives rise to four spores. 

 In the Ascomycetes the number of spores in each sack is 

 generally eight, a multiple of four. The exceptional eases 

 are numerous, but not sufficiently so to make the normal 

 number unworthy of notice; especially since it is so strongly 

 exemplified in the quarternary division of the peristome of 

 Mosses, the four-valved capsules of Liverworts and the 

 tetraspores of many Algre. The fact that Fungi may be 

 propagated by their mycelium is observed in the cultiva- 

 tion of mushrooms and in the ordinary use of the yeast 

 plant. The spores are neglected and the propagation of the 

 plant is carried on by placing a portion of the mycelium 

 (or spawn as it is called in the case of the mushroom) under 

 proper conditions for its growth. This process is really 

 not much unlike that employed in the cultivation of 



