39 



ON TWO-SPORED BASIDIA AND OTHER 

 MATTERS. 



By A. A. Pcarsoii, F.L.S. 



During the last two years I liave had occasion to examine 

 the microscopic characters of a large number of Hymeno- 

 mycetes. My observations have chiefly been made On the 

 Agarics, and of course have not been exercised over 

 sufficiently long a period to permit of any conclusions of 

 a general character. 1 fmd, however, that so few students 

 of the larger fungi trouble about the microscopic details 

 of these organisms, that the observations I have made may 

 be found interesting. There is curiously little of a concrete 

 character to be found in the fungus floras, and new species of 

 Agarics have been made even in recent vears without anv 

 particulars of a microscopic character other than spore 

 measurements being given. 



It would of course be wrong to suggest that such studies 

 have been entirely neglected. Mr. Cotton in his 1913 

 Presidential address to this Society gave us some useful 

 information on this score. Among French mycological 

 works, those of Patouillard are justly esteemed, and his 

 " Hymenomycetes d' Europe " and his later and completer 

 " Essai Taxonomique " are evidence of a profound study of 

 the larger fungi, but even recently it was not very evident 

 that such studies w-ere being made use of by systematists. 

 In such a modern work as that of Messrs. Bigeard & 

 Guillemin, the second volume of which was published in 

 1913, we find the most meagre and frequently incorrect 

 microscopic details given, spores being measured by length 

 only, as copied from (Juelet for the most part, and no 

 mention being made of the cystidia which, I have no 

 hesitation in saying, will be of considerable help in the 

 elucidation of many groups which up to the present have 

 been imperfectly studied. Perhaps it is hardly fair to 

 mention this work, which is supposed to be of a popular 

 character. How-ever, in spite of the pioneer work of their 

 compatriots, only recently have the French appreciated the 

 need for using the microscope more extensively in the 

 taxonomic studies of the Agarics, and the admirable and 

 indeed almost too elaborate notes of Monsieur Rene Maire 



