42 STRUCTURE OF THE GILL-PLATES OF AGARICS. 



bristles. These observations have led me to regard these organs 

 disseminated upon the gills or frequently agglomerated near 

 the margin, as hypertrophied basidia, returned to the functions 

 of organs of vegetation, as we see abnormally a carpel to 

 become a leaf. We are thus brought back to the first idea of 

 Micheli, who called them sterile flowers, proposing only for their 

 usage an interpretation diametrically opposed to his own. The 

 cystidia appear to me to fulfil to the gills, the same office that the 

 ring fulfils between the pileus and the stem ; these two organs of 

 the same nature transmit, at their contact, prolongations which 

 bind them together ; the gills organs of the same nature, and 

 adjacent, have a tendency to send out prolongations to bind 

 the one to the other. A certain number, obeying this law, 

 are lengthened, and are diverted from their original use ; but as 

 the ring may be very much developed or fugacious and rudimen- 

 tary to such an extent that it seems to exist only as a reminder, 

 or is altogether wanting, so the cystidia may be wanting, or take 

 such a development that they are visible to the naked eye ; they 

 fulfil, in certain cases, the functions of trabecules so well, that in 

 separating the gills of Agaricus utramentraius, not entirely expanded, 

 the gills divide into two longitudinal portions, instead of separat- 

 ing the corresponding faces of two different gills. This pheno- 

 menon is very apparent, and Delile, who was unacquainted with the 

 cystidia, had noted the existence of fibrous prolongations binding 

 the gills of this Agaric. 



It is natural to ask whether we can take advantage of the obser- 

 vation of different forms of cystidia for the classification of the 

 Agarics ; M. H. Hoffman concludes not. 



We know that there is little agreement between the form of the 

 cystidia (pollenaire, Hoff.), and the greater part of the sections ; 

 since they cannot be considered as organs of fecundation, and as 

 their analogy with epidermal productions or organs of simple vege- 

 tation is established, one can understand a priori that their impor- 

 tance diminishes. 



Nevertheless, if we consider them from the point of view of the 

 dominating form amongst a group, we shall perceive that there are 

 still some comparisons to be effected, and that it is necessary to 

 take account of this element of diagnosis, more especially as the 

 observations made on this subject are still few in number, and, 

 because, on the other hand, the sections more or less in acceptance 

 at the present time amongst the Agarics generally, may very likely 

 not represent their true divisions very faithfully. 



Thus regarded, the hymenium, which has not yet offered an organ 

 which we may suppose in reality to be the male organ, is reduced 

 to great simplicity : one sole and self-same organ is the basis of it ; 

 according as it experiences an arrest of its development, as it grows 

 and fructifies, or as it becomes hypertrophied, it gives us a para- 

 physis, a basidium, or a cystidium ; in other terms, atrophied 



