STRUCTURE. 27 



to have great affinity with that of Tremella. The spores in the 

 species examined were of ,a different form, being 'oblong, very 

 obtuse, slightly curved ('013 '019 x '004 -006 mm.), at first 

 unilocular, but afterwards triseptate. The basidia are cylin- 

 drical or clavate, filled with coloured granular matter ; each of 

 these bifurcates at the summit, and gradually elongates into two 

 very open branches, which are attenuated above, and ultimately 

 each is crowned by a spore. There are to be found also in the 

 species of this genus globose bodies, designated " sporidioles " 

 by M. Leveille, which Tulasne took considerable care to trace to 

 their source. He thus accounts for them : Each of the cells of 

 the spore emits exteriorly one or several of these corpuscles, 

 supported on very short and very slender pedicels, which remain 

 after the corpuscles are detached from them, new corpuscles 

 succeeding the first as long as there remains any plastic matter 

 within the spore. The pedicels are not all on the same plane ; 

 they are. often implanted all on the same, and oftenest on the 

 convex side of the reproductive body. These corpuscles, though 

 placed under the most favourable conditions, never gave the 

 least sign of vegetation, and Tulasne concludes that they are 

 spermatia, analogous to those produced in Tremella. The spores 

 which produce spermatia are not at all apt to germinate, whilst 

 those which did not produce spermatia germinated freely. Hence 

 it would appear that, although all spores seem to be perfectly iden- 

 tical, they have not all the same function. The same observer 

 detected also amongst specimens of the Dacrymyces some of a 

 darker and reddish tint, always bare of spores or spermatia on 

 the surface, and these presented a somewhat different structure. 

 Where the tissue had turned red it was sterile, the constituent 

 filaments, ordinarily colourless, and almost empty of solid matter, 

 were filled with a highly-coloured protoplasm ; they were of less 

 tenuity, more irregularly thick, and instead of only rarely pre- 

 senting partitions, and remaining continuous, as in other parts 

 of the plant, were parcelled out into an infinity of straight or 

 curved pieces, angular and of irregular form, especially towards 

 the surface of the fungus, where they compose a sort of pulp, 

 varying in cohesion according to the dry or moist condition of 



