24 Reproduction in the Mushroom Tribe. By W. G. Smith. 



nation seem to sliow that impi-egnation takes place at a very early 

 period." 



Now my observations show that this impregnation often actually 

 takes place on the hymenium itself, the product being a single cell, 

 which in the species now described rapidly develops into a new 

 individual. The spore and spermatozoid may be considered as 

 somewhat analogous with an ovule and a pollen grain, or with what 

 is seen in Chara ; or like the escaped oosphere and spermatozoids 

 in Fucus amongst the Algae. 



I cannot attach much importance to Qjirsted's interesting paper 

 on the fructification of the Agaricini. His notes are on Agaricus 

 variabilis, a plant he gathered from a Mushroom bed. Now, as 

 far as my experience goes, A. variabilis is peculiar to dead stems, 

 sticks, and leaves, and does not grow upon dung. Moreover, 

 CErsted experimented upon threads of mycehum taken from dung, 

 and presumed only to belong to this Agaricus ; but this mycelium 

 was quite as likely, in my opinion, to have belonged to fifty other 

 things. De Bary, speaking of ffirsted's observations, says : " It is 

 impossible not to perceive the similitude between the phenomena 

 seen by I\I. CErsted and those I have described in Peziza con- 

 Jluens." It is quite doubtful whether or not CErsted had got the 

 mycelium of some dung-borne Peziza for his experiments, as 

 P. vesiculosa, which is always present on dungheaps. 



In the observation of natural phenomena it is never well to 

 follow, without thought and original observation, in the footsteps 

 of others. In the case of Peronospora infestans, because De Bary 

 said the resting spores were not likely to be found in the Potato 

 plant, it was almost universally accepted as a fact that they never 

 could be there found. Because conidia had not been described, it 

 was commonly believed that no conidia existed. The mycehum of 

 Peronospora has till lately been described as al\\ays destitute of 

 suckers, but in some of the Chiswick plants the suckers were abun- 

 dant. The same fungus is commonly described as having its threads 

 without articulations or septa, but it is equally common to see the 

 fungus and the figures of it too with septa in profusion. 



Many botanists, as Corda, Bulliard, Klotzsch, and others, have 

 considered the cystidium in Agaricus to correspond in some way 

 with an antheridium ; but as these views have not at present been 

 favoured by Tulasue and De Bary, many botanists seem disposed to 

 agree with De Bary in regarding the cystids as mere " pilose pro- 

 ductions of a particular order," which is very indefinite, and the 

 granules as mere conidia (Tulasne). Klotzsch and others have con- 

 sidered it possible that the spores are fecundated by a lubricating 

 fluid given out by the cystidia. This fluid is evidently the same 

 with the threads observed by me, and which at length gives birth 

 to spermatozoids. I consider it quite possible that the mere contact 



