SEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF THALLOPHYTES. 3823 
happens, but it seems probable that one act of fertilization 
may give rise to numerous perithecia, and the sporocarp 
must therefore be regarded as compound instead of simple. 
Lichens must now be placed, as indicated above, amongst 
the Ascomycetes. Their fructification may be referred partly 
to the type of Discomycetes, such as we find in Peziza, partly 
to that of the Pyrenomycetes, such as we find it in Spheria. 
But in no case at present has the sexual act which doubtless 
underlies the development of their apo- and_ peri-thecia 
been detected. This would, indeed, if observed, conclusively 
clinch the case in favour of the Schwendenerian theory of 
Lichens. 
ciDIoMYCETES.—No observations of any sexual organs 
have been made in this group. 
BastptomycetTEs.—In the last edition of his ‘ Lehrbuch,’ 
Sachs remarks that though no sexual process had been 
detected in the case of any form belonging to these fungi, 
analogy would lead to the supposition that the mycelium 
developed sexual organs, and that the spore-bearing body 
must be regarded as a sporocarp. Amongst the Erysiphee 
and even the Duscomycetes the degree of differentiation 
exhibited by the constituent tissues of the pseudo-parenchy- 
matous mass of which the sporocarp is, at first at any rate, 
principally composed, is not very striking. But amongst the 
Basidiomycetes the gradual evolution of the final spore- 
bearing structures is in such genera as Phallus and Crucibu- 
Zum most elaborate. 
Attempts which have fallen out of notice have been made 
by Karsten as well as by Girsted! to establish the fact of a 
sexual process amongst the Basidiomycetes. The most 
recent observations are those of Van Tieghem? on Coprinus. 
Van Tieghem found by sowing the spores in a solution of 
horse-dung that they are dicecious. ‘They produce a mycelium 
which, in the case of a male spore, developes from the ends 
of lateral branches tufts of minute rod-like bodies (anthero- 
zoids), which fall off and are renewed like the conidia of a 
Penicillium. The mycelium developed from the female 
spores produces upon its branches, only more slowly, club- 
shaped bodies (carpogonia), three or four times as long as 
broad, and terminated at the apex by a small papilla, which 
Van Tieghem describes as playing the part of a trichogyne, 
the rod-like non-motile antherozoids becoming affixed to it. 
The contents of one of these pass into the carpogonium, 
leaving the empty cell-wall attached to the papilla. Van 
1 See ‘ Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci.,’ 1868, p. 18. 
2 *Comptes rendus,’ Feb. 8, 1875, p. 373. 
