vm. 



SEXUAL REPRODUCTION. 



THE existence of some sort of sexual reproduction in Fungi has 

 long been suspected, although in earlier instances upon insuf- 

 ficient grounds ; but of late years observations have multiplied 

 and facts accumulated which leave no doubt of its existence. If 

 the Saprolegnics are left out of the question as disputed Fungi, 

 there still remain a number of well authenticated instances of 

 the phenomena of copulation, and many other facts which 

 indicate some sort of sexual relationship. The precise manner 

 in which those minute bodies, so common amongst the 

 Spharonemei, which we prefer to call stylospores, perform 

 their functions is still to a great extent a mystery ; yet it is 

 no longer doubted that certain species of Aposphceria, Phoma, 

 Septoria, &c., are only conditions of some species of Spharla, 

 often developed and matured in close proximity to them on the 

 same host. In ^Ecidium, Roestelia, &c., sperm ogonia are produced 

 plentifully on or near the same spots on which the fructification 

 appears, either simultaneously or at a later period.* The rela- 

 tion of Cytispora to Valsa was suspected by Fries very many 

 years ago, and, as since demonstrated, with very good reason. 

 All attempts, however, to establish anything like sexual repro- 

 duction in the higher forms of Hymenomycetes have at present 

 been unsuccessful ; and the same may be said of the Gasteromy- 

 cetes ; but in Ascomycetes and Physomycetes instances abound. 

 We know not whether any importance is to be attached to the 



* M. Tulasne has devoted a chapter to the sperm ogocia of the Uredines in his 

 memoir, to which we have already alluded. 



