IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 45 



in the usual way. The sporoid bodies, when they gain 

 access to the flower of the rye, develope the fungus- 

 growth, from which the ergot originates in the way de- 

 scribed.* 



The point of greatest difficulty is the determination of 

 spermatic organs. Spermatia do not seem as yet to have 

 been detected in connection with the sphseria-growth. 

 Leveille and otjiers appear to regard the conidia as " fer- 

 tilizing organs ;" but besides that this is not consistent with 

 Tulasne's observations of their germination, the wide inter- 

 val between them and the spores is of itself opposed to 

 such a view. 



The highest group of Fungi is the one in which our know- 

 ledge of the reproductive process is as yet the least satis- 

 factory. Spermatia have been met with only exceptionally 

 as in Tremellineae-f and proper thecse, as it would seem, 

 not at all. The characteristic fructification consists of naked 

 spores borne in clusters of four, as described already, on 

 elongated cells termed basidia, which in the Hymenomycetes 

 occupy some part of the exterior surface of the proliferous 

 receptacle as we see in the gills of the common mushroom 

 while in the Gasteromycetes they are developed from the 

 lining membrane of an internal cavity of which we have an 

 example in Bomsta or the puff ball. In this case the spores 



* Comptes Rendus. Dec., 1851, and Seq. Ann, des Sciences Nat., 

 3d Ser. XX., p. 553. Annals of Nat. History, 2d Ser. IX. 494. Com- 

 pare the account in the Micrographical Dictionary. 



f In some of this group, according to Radlkofer, the hymenium or 

 fructifying surface bears spermatia, and basidia crowned with spores like 

 those of agarics. This occurs in Tremella mesenterica. In others, as 

 Dact-ymyces ceigiiescews,wehaveinthe same position multilocular spores, 

 all of like aspect, but some acting as audrospores, and originating in ger- 

 mination spermatiferous pedicels ; while others, representing apparently 

 the opposite sex, emit mycelial filaments. Annals of Natural History, 

 2d Ser., XX., 247. See also Berkeley's Introduction to Cryptogamic 

 Botany, p. 350. 



