BASIDIA AND THE DISCHARGE OF SPORES 27 



Does a Basidium Produce more than One Generation of Spores ? 

 Corda, in 1839, stated that in the Agaricini each sterigma pro- 

 duces several spores in succession, one after the other, in the same 

 manner as the terminal branches of the conidiophores of certain 

 Moulds. 1 Schmitz, in 1843, after studying the production of spores 

 from the living hymenium of Stereum hirsutum (his Thelephora 

 hirsute), expressed the view that one and the same basidium can 

 produce sets of four spores not merely once but many times. 2 

 Worthington Smith believed that the basidium of a Mushroom 

 (Psalliota campestris) produces two generations of spores, first two 

 spores on two sterigmata and then two more on two other 

 sterigmata. 3 Recently, Istvanffi and Rene Maire have revived 

 the theory of Corda and Schmitz. In order to explain some of 

 the results of their nuclear studies, they have assumed that in 

 some species a single basidium can produce more than one genera- 

 tion of spores. This assumption has been made by Istvanffi for 

 Hydnangium carneum* Rene Maire, in synthesising the results 

 of his researches, states that in the normal types of Basidiomycetes 

 the basidium produces a single generation of four spores, but that 

 in Psalliota, Godfrinia, Cantharellus, Clavaria, Mycena, Geaster, 

 etc., it produces either two, three, five, or six spores in a single 

 generation, or two generations of four spores, or two generations 

 of spores of unequal number 5 ; and finally, in his chief conclusions 

 as regards facts, he holds that in many species of Basidiomycetes 

 the basidium can produce two generations of spores on the same 

 sterigmata. 6 Here I wish to challenge Maire's conclusions in so far 

 as they assume that the same basidium may produce more than 

 one generation of spores. Maire worked on dead material. He 

 fixed it, stained it, and cut it up with the microtome. He counted 



1 A. C. I. Corda, Icones Fungorum huciisque cognitorum, Prag, T. Ill, 1839, p. 43. 



2 J. Schmitz, "Beitrage zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Schwamme," 

 Linnaea, Bd. XVII, 1843, p. 437. 



3 Worthington Smith, "Structure of the Common Mushroom," Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, Oct. 1876, p. 456. The accompanying illustrations are certainly erroneous. 



4 Gy. von Istvanffi, " Ueber die Rolle der Zellkerne bei der Entwicklung der 

 Pilze," Ber. d. D. bot. Gesell, Bd. XIII, 1895, p. 464. 



5 Rene Maire, " Recherches cytologiques et taxonomiques sur les Basidio- 

 mycetes," Bull. Soc. Myc. France, T. 18, 1902, p. 187. 



R Loc. cit., p. 204. 



