262 H. MARSHALL WARD. 



On the Sexuality of the Fungi. 



By 



H. Marsball ^Vard, M.A., 



Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge ; Assistant-Lecturer in Botany at the 



Owens College, Victoria University, Manchester. 



The fruitfulness and stimulus of the theory of descent have 

 probably been felt in no province of biology with more effect 

 than in the investigation of the more minute forms of plants ; 

 and the results obtained from the study of microscopic Fungi 

 have absorbed attention and interest of late years to an extent 

 whichj whether commensurate or not with their importance, 

 promises even more in the future than has been attained in the 

 past. 



Not only with respect to the economic aspect of a thorough 

 knowledge of Fungi inimical to the animal and vegetable world, 

 but also as regards the real position of these remarkable 

 organisms in nature, it is of the greatest importance that 

 investigations should proceed and multiply. For we have 

 learned in this as in other departments of science, that the 

 results of thorough and accurate knowledge cannot really be 

 foreseen, and that new side lights are thrown on other matters 

 bv every acquisition of facts and principles. 



Apart from their interests more directly affecting mankind, 

 the Fungi have seemed to present problems of life in some 

 respects simpler than other forms, and have thus in a manner 

 promised a solution of phylogenetic and physiological questions 

 more nearly approaching the ideal of the evolutionist. As 

 research progressed, however, and the methods of observation 

 were improved, experience showed that the study of the Fungi 

 — though yielding results much beyond rather than below what 

 was expected — is attended with unlooked for difficulties. Not 



