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1902] BINUCLEATE CELLS IN HYMENOMYCETES 21 
other species show the transition from protobasidium to conid- 
iophore, Massee believes that Médller’s protobasidiomycete 
Pilacrella delectans stands close to the Isaria forms. Massee 
concludes that the ‘‘protobasidiomycetes as a group are derived 
from the conidial phase in the life-cycle of ascigerous fungi; 
the evolution is effected by the disappearance of the ascigerous 
form of reproduction, whereby the conidial phase assumes the 
standard of a species; this change being contemporaneous with 
the gradual conversion of the so-called conidiophore to the typ- 
ical basidium or spore-bearing organ.”’ He does not accept 
Juel’s proposition to transfer such forms as St#/bum vulgare Tode 
into the Protobasidiomycetes, holding that the transition stages 
are so characteristic that no hard and fast line can be drawn 
between the forms with Bigiobasi ae and those with conidio- 
phores. 
Massee follows Miller in denying that the true basidium 
with apical spores has been derived from the septate basidium. 
He believes that these non-septate basidia have been developed 
from conidia of the type seen in Matruchotia, Botrytis, Poly- 
actis, and others, through the non-septate basidium with lateral 
spores of the type seen in Tulostoma. Brefeld’s Auto- and Pro- 
tobasidiomycetes are both derived from the Ascomycetes, but 
as separate and distinct offshoots. Whether each of the two — 
groups is to be further regarded as polyphyletic and consisting 
of separate series derived respectively from the forms Stilbum, 
Isaria, etc., the author does not state. 
In the light of the facts described by Maire and ‘miyselé as) 
recorded above, all such conclusions as these of Massee are seen 
to be extremely uncertain. The typical binucleated condition of 
mycelial cells is as yet unknown in the Ascomycetes, and until 
a-transition from the coenocytic to the binucleated condition has 
been discovered in the forms discussed by Massee, his argument 
can be regarded as of little value. The widespread occurrence 
of regularly binucleate cells in the Basidiomycetes, with the 
additional evidence that these cells reproduce by conjugate 
division and constitute the reproductive series ( Keimbahn) in 
