OERSTED, ON THE AGARICINI. 19 



also Klotsch,* who sought to maintain the import of these 

 organs as that of male organs of fructification ; but, after 

 Hoffmann's researches, it must be regarded as settled that the 

 pollinaria are only a sterile form of basidia.f If now we add 

 to this that Tulasne has shown that the organs designated 

 spermatia by Hoffmann cannot be accepted as organs of 

 fertilisation, but that they correspond rather to the conidia 

 (microconidia) in other Fungi,:!: whereby likewise Karsten's 

 observations § lose their significance, we thus arrive at the 

 result that no one has hitherto succeeded in demonstrating 

 organs in the Agaricini, to which, in the present state of 

 knowledge of the lower plants, there could be attributed the 

 import of organs of fertilisation. 



The consideration of the Agaricini, viewed morpholo- 

 gically, leads to the conviction that the whole spore- 

 receptacle (Sporehus) must be a result of fertilisation, and 

 that thus the organs of fertilisation must have their seat in 

 the mycelium, and for several years I have had my attention 

 directed to this organ. 



Experiments in culture were undertaken in order to follow 

 out the development from the germinating spore to the 

 formation of the receptacle, but they did not lead to any 

 successful result, for the mycelium always died away shortly 

 after germination. I had only then to go back to Nature to 

 seek out the first stages of development of the receptacles in 

 order to be guided through these to the organs of fertilisa- 

 tion ; but the difficulty here presents itself that the mycelium 

 is always underground, and does not admit of being easily 

 brought under the microscope in such a condition that one 

 can get a clear vicAv of the individual filaments. At last I 

 succeeded in getting a clue to an agaric, which, contrary to 

 the habit of Fungi, spreads its mycelium above ground. 



This is Aga7ncus {Crepidotus) variabilis, Pers., which, for 

 our present research, presents that very favorable condition ; 

 one of the earliest known Fungi, which has been many times 

 described and figured, but one whose development-history has 

 been hitherto the same thing as unknown. || It was in the 



* In Dietrich's ' Flora des Konigreichs Preussen,' Bd. vi. 



t ' Botaiiische Zeituug-,' 1856, p. 135. 



X 'Selecta Fungoium Carpologia/ Tom. i, p. 161. In the 9tli chapter of 

 this classic work is given a complete review of the whole of the literature 

 treating on the fructification of Fungi. 



§ ' Bonplandia,' 1861, p. 63. 



11 E. Fries, ' Systema mycol.,' i, p. 275 ; ' Epicrisis,' p. 211. "Crepi- 



