OERSTED, ON THE AGARICINI. 23 



tion which takes place when the alcohol, and afterwards the 

 water, is brought in beneath the covering-glass, under which 

 the dry mycelium is placed. One sees then that these organs, 

 by degrees, expand to more than double their dimensions, 

 whilst at the same time they are changed, so that the septa 

 disappear, and the (seemingly) single terminal cell gradually 

 breaks up into a number of smaller cells. The stem-cell is 

 often slightly narrowed at the base, and it is not separated by 

 any septum from the mycelium cells, whence it proceeds, 

 and has the same contents as it. The cells united into a 

 globular head at the end of the stem vary much in size and 

 number; sometimes they are larger, and then fewer in 

 number ; sometimes smaller, and then much more numerous. 

 They easily fall off, and then it is seen that they are oval, 

 and that they present themselves as round only when seen 

 from the ends ; they have hyaline contents, and only seldom 

 is there seen a nucleus-like body. As regards the develo]3- 

 ment of these organs, there appears to be formed first a cell 

 at the end of the stem-cell ; when this has reached a size of 

 about -^ mm., and while the stem grows in length to about 

 -1^0 mm., the end cells gradually increase in number. These 

 organs cannot be regarded as serving fertilisation, but cor- 

 respond quite to the conidia or bud-cells, which of late years 

 we have learned to know in many fungi, and especially in 

 many Sphaeriae, * whilst under this form they have not 

 hitherto been knov. n in agarics. But if they have not been 

 known as conidia, yet have they been not quite unknown ; 

 of this we may satisfy ourselves by comparing with Corda's 

 figure of Cephalosporium macrocarpum.-\ There cannot, in- 

 deed, be any doubt but that both figures refer to the same 

 plant; and we arrive thus at the result that the species 

 included under the genus Cephalosporium are not independent 

 fungi, but the mycelium of Agarics forming bud-cells. 



From the same mycelium-filaments which bear the bud- 

 cells, or from others, proceed likev/ise the organs of fructifi- 

 cation. The female organ of fructification occurs, as in most 

 of the lowest spore-bearing plants, as a single cell — the 

 oogonium. The first rudiments of this cell present them- 

 selves as an eversion, which from the beginning is curved 

 down towards the mycelium filament, and, by degrees, 

 as the oogonium grows, it becomes almost reniform, becoming 

 appressed, its apex lying against the side of the mycelium 

 filament. Such oosronia originate in numbers from the 

 mycelium filaments, and have always essentially the same 



* Tulasue, ' Selecta Fungorum Carpologia," torn. 2. 

 t ' Tcon. Fung.,' iii, tab. ii, fig. 30. 



