72 College of Forestry 
transfer bits of rotten wood to agar plates and secure a con- 
tinuation of the growth of the ‘mycelium, since under the 
increased moisiire content of the new envir ‘onment the myce- 
lium usually became sodden and died. Without regard for 
the ease with which pure cultures can be obtained from 
basidiospores, the basidiospore was regarded as the most logi- 
cal point to begin the culture study, since the possibility of 
error would be | less than if the culture was obtained in some 
other way, and it was thought that the young mycelium aris- 
ing from the basidiospore might possess properties and 
means of reproduction not seen in the more mature stages of 
the fungus. 
To obtain the basidiospores, fresh sporophores of the 
fungus were collected in the field, wrapped in waxed paper, 
and brought into the laboratory. The sporophores were 
rinsed in sterile distilled water, which served not only to 
remove some of the bacteria and spores of foreign fungi, but 
also to thoroughly saturate the sporophores. The sporophores 
were removed with sterile forceps and the excess water was 
sponged off with bibulous paper which had been previously 
sterilized, and were then placed, hymenium downward, in 
large, dry, sterile petri dishes. As Zeller (1916, p. 442) 
has pointed out, the moisture in the sporophores serves two 
purposes other than reviving the tissues, in that it keeps the 
air in the dish sufficiently humid to prevent too rapid des- 
sication, and it also tends to retain foreign spores on the 
surface of the sporophore, the latter being beneficial in secur- 
ing a fairly pure dispersion of spores. After twenty-four 
hours the sporophores had discharged enough spores to make 
a white spore print. 
Where the ungerminated spores were inoculated directly 
upon poured agar plates, the spore dispersion was made in 
sterile distilled water. Several loopfuls of sterile water were 
transferred to the spore print by means of. a platinum loop. 
By stirring a little with the loop the spores were so dispersed 
that when a loopful was transferred to the center of a poured 
agar plate it produced a cloudy drop. Where the spores were 
previously germinated in hanging drop cultures so that their 
