14 Ueprodudion in the Mushroom Tribe. By W. G. Smith. 



my aim to make my observations accord with what others have 

 said, as to record what I have seen myself, and to give my own in- 

 terpretation of the phenomena seen, irrespective of what has been 

 said or done before. 



The first sign of differentiation in the simple cells of the gills, 

 when the basidia and cystidia are about to be produced, is in the 

 privileged cells becoming glossy, crystalline, and translucent : they 

 both appear to secrete a material which makes them conspicuously 

 brilliant. Each basidium then throws out four slender branches, 

 the tips of which gradually swell and form spores. The cystidia 

 (W) are more sparingly produced (for their number in this species, 

 see Fig. 1, H, and Fig. 2, Q), and at first cannot be distinguished 

 from the basidia, though they are frequently larger in size ; they 

 are commonly granular within, and are in many species, as in the 

 one before us, crowned with granules, W (Fig. 4, X), but some- 

 times they bear four spicules, and this latter condition has led some 

 botanists to consider the cystidia to be bairen basidia, but that they 

 are really cystidia with spicules is proved by the following fact, which 

 I believe to be somewhat new. In moisture, as supplied by the 

 expressed juice of horse-dung (or even distilled water) these spicule- 

 bearing cystidia germinate at the four points of the spicules, and 

 produce long threads, which bear at their tips the granules so fre- 

 quent in typical cystidia (Fig. 4, Y). The cystidia are moreover 

 furnished ^^'ith spicules in the subgenus Pluteus. The germinating 

 cystidia are seen in several places at W, Figs, o and 4, and the 

 granules at X, Y. On the top of Fig. 4 is seen a section of a gill 

 with all the bodies in position enlarged 350 diameters, whilst on the 

 lower part of the cut may be seen various germinating cystidia to 

 the same scale as seen on the surface of a gill. The granules at Y, 

 which are at first not capable of movement, are really spermatnzoids 

 possessed of a fecundative power, but to see this power brought into 

 operation considerable care and patience and the higher powers of 

 the microscope are requisite. In certain other of the Agaricini, the 

 protoplasmic contents of the cystidia are at times discharged from 

 one mouth only and that at the apex of the cystidium. 



Before quitting Figs. 3 and 4, I may say that when a slice, as 

 represented in Fig. 3, is placed under a covering glass in a drop of 

 water, all the cells totally collapse and vanish, so that in three or 

 four hours not a vestige remains, but the same drop of water which 

 destroys the old cells instils life into the granules or spermatozoids, 

 which after the lapse of a couple of hours begin to revolve, and 

 ultimately swim about with great rapidity. These spermatozoids 

 attach themselves to the spores, pierce the coat, and discharge their 

 contents into the substance uf the spore. From twenty-four to 

 forty-eight hours after this the spore discharges a cell which soon 

 becomes free, and this is the first cell of the pileus of a new plant 



