CHAPTER XI 



NAKED-SPORED FUNGI BASIDIOMYCETES 



The only safe course in the study of Fungi or any other of the 

 multitudinous organisms, whether animal or vegetable, with 

 which the earth teems, is to proceed step by step from the 

 general to the particular by a systematic sequence. In a few 

 cases it may be possible by a reference to figures, or from 

 incidental circumstances, to attach a name with some approach 

 to accuracy, but such an act is of no service — it teaches 

 nothing, it avails nothing, it is only a sham, a delusion, and 

 a snare. The only road to knowledge is a rough one, but it 

 must be traversed, and all its difficulties surmounted ; there 

 can be no creeping upwards by a by-path, for all the by- 

 paths end at a precipice. The most we can do is to tread 

 firmly, walk circumspectly, and look* upwards. The study of 

 Fungi is not an easy one, and cannot be got over - empirically, 

 but with application and perseverance the difficulties, which 

 seemed at first appalling, become less so at every step. 



An effort has been made in the previous chapter to give a 

 general idea of the scope of the subject, but such efforts are 

 never thoroughly effective, cannot be final, and at the best 

 consist only of a shadowy outline. In the present instance 

 this outline has indicated the existence of a great group or 

 cluster of groups in which the spores are produced naked — 

 that is to say, not enclosed in a general vesicle or envelope, 

 but borne at the apices of spore-bearing threads. The supports 

 are sometimes highly developed, but in the primary section, 

 the Basidiomycetes, they are short and thick comparatively, 

 and as the name indicates, these basidia, or supporters, are 

 the distinctive feature in the section. 



