28 H. MARSHALL WARD. 



gonia being the male organs, and the "secidium fruit" probably 

 resulting from a fertilised body equivalent to the ascogonium of the 

 Ascomycetes. This view was strengthened and supported by Stahl'3 

 discovery of the sexual process in Lichens ; but no organs like the 

 ascogonium or trichogyne have yet been discovered in spite of much 

 labour. Finally, we may dismiss the larger Basidiomycetes by refer- 

 ring to Brefeld's magnificent research 1 on certain types, and particu- 

 larly on Coprinus. 



Brefeld placed beyond all reasonable doubt that the stalked pileus 

 arises from the mycelium, and completes its development without the 

 intervention of any sexual process, or the appearance of any sexual 

 organs ; and since no one has succeeded in rendering it probable that 

 sexual organs occur later, we may probably accept Brefeld's view that 

 no sexes exist in the Agarics as we know them, but that they are 

 large aggregations of hyph^e producing asexual spores. Whether we 

 really know the whole life history of any of these forms is a question 

 which cannot be raised with much advantage j ust now. 



It thus appears that while the discoveries of Pringsheim, Tulasne, 

 and De Bary led, on the one hand, to numerous other observations of 

 sexual organs in the fungi, and seemed to show that a sexual process 

 is nearly universal with them as with other groups of living beings 

 equally complex in organisation ; on the other hand, there were nume- 

 rous cases where room for serious doubts existed — doubts not dispelled 

 by the recognition of the difficulty of the research. As time passed, 

 moreover, the suspicion that certain groups of fungi are really devoid 

 of sexual organs (although analogy would lead us to expect them) 

 increased, and in some cases reached conviction. Of coui'se, we are 

 not referring to the very obscure lower groups — the SchizomycHes, 

 Saccharomycetes, and Myxomycetes, &c. — which we shall leave out of 

 account altogether in this survey. 



It is not to be forgotten that much more was known about the 

 physiology of the fungi by this time, and that the'recognition of sapro- 

 phytic and parasitic forms implied considerable advance in our know- 

 ledge of their modes of life, changes of habit, and so forth. The 

 progress made in the stiidy of fermentation, moreover, had its effect 

 on the study of mycology generally ; and the progress of biology as a 

 whole — so particularly active during this period — had, in 1880, left 

 its mark on this specialised branch of research. 



I ' Schimmelpilze,' H. iii. 



