* 
BRIEGPER AK TICLES 
THE BASIDIUM OF AMANITA BISPORIGERA.! 
(WITH SEVENTEEN FIGURES) 
THERE are among the Hymenomycetes certain species which have 
basidia bearing only two spores instead of the usual four. Such a form 
is sometimes found in a genus the other members of which have basidia 
with the usual number of spores. Some time ago while studying the 
structure of a white Amanita which resembles A. verna, Professor ATKIN- 
SON discovered that certain of the plants had basidia with only two spores. 
He also found that the two-spored plant could be distinguished from 
the four-spored A. verna by other characters, and he has described it 
as a new species, A. bisporigera. 
AMANITA BISPORIGERA. 
Amanita bisporigera iprincgd . sp.—Plants entirely ves usually occurring 
singly, about 9—13°™ high; pileus 4-6.5°m broad; stem 5-8™m™ thick; 2-2.5¢m 
thick. Pileus convex to expanded, ry often gibbous or somewhat broadly umbo- 
nate, smooth, viscid when moist, thin. Gills subel eal coe tapering more 
behind itis they are rounded and free but close, rather crowded, edge of gills floc- 
cose. Basidia 2-spored. svn to subglobose or oboval, smooth, with a 
minute pedicel where siinskectit to ae erigmata as in many species, 8-ro@. Stem 
nearly even, or slightly tapering oa solid, when fresh finely floccose scaly both 
above and below the annulus, in age tending to become smooth + below 
e annulus. Annulus thin, membranous, fragile, sometimes entir metimes 
torn, superior. Volva thick. with apical deiiectane iit with the free mb b sping 
into two or heres lobes which are usually closely it ati against the s 
e ground in woods. It has been found many times at nee Nu YX: 
and mela and specimens under twelve or more sheet are in the Herbarium 
of the Siecemre of Botany, Cornell Univers 
The t bears a striking resemblance to | verna, but is distinguished by its 
more Piers habit and the two-spored basidia. 
As this plant so closely resembles a four-spored aa it seemed 
desirable to study the nuclear phenomena in the basidium to determine 
how the behavior of the nuclei compares with what has been observed 
in the four-spored forms by WAGER (5, 6), JuEL (4), HARPER (2), and 
others. The results of a number of investigators make it seem very prob- 
able that in all Basidiomycetes the young basidium contains two small 
primary nuclei which fuse to form the secondary nucleus ofthe basidium. 
‘Contributions from the ci aac of Botany, —_ University, No. 108. 
tanical Gazette, vol. 41] as ha 
