126 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



of Krombholz and of Sturm's Deutschlands Flora. Finally the 

 bubble was burst between the years 1836 and 1842 through the 

 work of Ascherson, Leveille/ and Berkeley,^ supplemented by that 

 of Phoebus and the later work of Corda : the supposed asci melted 

 into thin air and were replaced by typical basidia with external 

 spores such as everybody recognises at the present day. The first 

 illustrations of a cross-section and a surface section of the hymenium 

 of a Coprinus showing basidia and paraphyses correctly drawn were 

 pubhshed by Corda in 1837.3 



A considerable advance in our knowledge of the Coprini was made 

 by Brefeld who in the year 1877 gave a masterly account of the 

 origin and development of Coprinus stercorarius.^ Brefeld showed 

 that a fruit-body arises from a single cell of the mycelium, and not 

 from an oospore or zygospore as had been previously supposed. 

 He raised the fungus in pure cultures and followed its growth 

 step by step from spore to spore. He showed that the sclerotium 

 is a resting body, laden with food materials and destined to pro- 

 duce fruit-bodies under favourable conditions. He described the 

 histology of the stipe, the pileus-flesh, and the gills, and illustrated 

 his remarks with a series of excellent drawings. As shown by his 

 cross-sections of a gill, he clearly perceived the true structure of 

 the basidia, the paraphyses, and the cystidia ; and he discussed the 

 function of each. He rightly maintained that the spores are shot 

 away with violence from the ends of the sterigmata, that the 

 paraphyses are sterile elements which play an important part in 

 the expansion of the gills and thereby of the pileus, and that the 

 cystidia act as stays which prevent the gills from pressing upon one 

 another and thus bring into existence the spaces required for the 

 development of the spores. Notwithstanding all Bref eld's care and 

 his desire for complete analysis, certain important points in the 

 organisation of the Coprinus type of fruit-body escaped his notice. 



1 Leveille, " Recherches sur rHymenium des Champignons," Ann. sci. nut., 

 2 £6r., Vlir, 1837. ' . 



2 Berkeley, " On the Fructification of the Pileate and Ciavate Tribes of Hj'meno- 

 mycetous Fungi," Ann. Nat. Hist., London, I, 1838, pp. 81-101. 



3 Corda, Icones Fungorum, Tomus I, Prague, 1837, Bd. I, Tab. VII. 



* 0. Brefeld, Untersuchungen iiber Schimmelpilze, Leipzig, Heft III, 1877, 

 pp. 1-97. 



