SACCHAROMYCETES ; BASIDIOMYCETES 



647 



There is reason to believe, moreover, that a similar ' zymotic ' action 

 may be excited by fungi of a higher grade in the earlier stages of 

 their growth, the alcoholic fermentation being set up in a suitable 

 liquid (such as an aqueous solution of cane-sugar, with a little fruit- 

 juice) by sowing in it the spores of any one of the ordinary moulds, 

 such as Penicillium glaucum, Mucor, or Aspergillus, provided the 

 temperature be kept up to blood-heat ; and this even though the 

 solution has been pre- 

 viously heated to 284 

 Fahr., a temperature 

 which must kill any 

 germs it may itself con- 

 tain. 



The Basidiomycetes 

 are distinguished by the 

 entire absence, as far as 

 is at present known, of 

 sexual organs, and by 

 the formation of their 

 conids or spores at the 

 apex of special enlarged 

 cells, the basids. They 

 include the largest and 

 most familiar of our 

 fungi, such as the genera 

 Agaricus, Boletus, Poly- 

 porus, Lycoperdon, Phal- 

 lus, &c. They are sapro- 

 phytes, obtaining their 

 nourishment from the 

 decaying vegetable mat- 

 ter in the soil, stumps 

 of trees, &c., tfcc., among 

 which the mycele pene- 

 trates, consisting often 

 of a dense weft of sep- 

 tated hyphae, the ; spawn ' 

 of the mushroom. The 

 aerial portion, known as 

 the receptacle or fructifi- 

 cation, bears either ex- 

 ternally, as in the case 

 of the mushroom (fig. 

 483), or internally, as 

 in the case of the Lycoperdon, or 'puff-ball,' the fertile portion 

 or hymenium. On this hymenium project the extremities of special 

 hyphae, which are swollen into basids ; the non-sexual conids or 

 basidiospores are formed at the extremity of the basids, usually in 

 fours, from which they are easily detached, and, from their small 

 size and great lightness, are readily carried through the air in great 

 quantities. In the Hymeiwmycetes, of which the common mushroom 



FIG. 483. Agaricus campestris, formation of the 

 hymenium : A and B, slightly magnified ; C, a part 

 of B, magnified 550 times. The portion marked 

 with fine dots is protoplasm. (From Goebel's 

 ' Classification and Morphology of Plants.') 



