THE SEXUALITY OF THE FUXGI. 29 



It is not necessary to enter into all the systems of classification 

 proposed for the fungi during this period. The well-known grouping 

 of Sachs aud Cohn, presented to English readers in the " Text-book " 

 of the former, -was admitted to be in great measure artificial, and those 

 proposed by Van Tieghem 1 and by Winter 2 appear to answer their 

 purpose only temporarily, and certainly need not occupy us here. The 

 same is true for other classifications up to 1880. 



It was just prior to this period that the very important memoir by 

 Brefeld 3 was published, in which he detailed the results of his investi- 

 gations into the nature of the Basidiomycetes. 



By cultivation in nutritive media, Brefeld succeeded in tracing the 

 whole cycle of Coprinus from the basidio-spore to the formation of a 

 mycelium and fructification. He shows that the latter arises by a 

 purely vegetative process from the dense mass of interwoven hyphse 

 [Sclerotium) budded off from the mycelium, and that no trace of a 

 sexual process or of the formation of sexual organs can be detected 

 either previously to the development of the Sclerotium or afterwards. 

 The pileus with its hymenium are produced simply by a budding off 

 of numerous hyphee growing up together, either directly from the 

 mycelium, or with the intervention of the Sclerotium. Brefeld regards 

 it as certain that these fungi are entirely without sexual organs. 



It is impossible to go into the details of this voluminous memoir ; 

 but it is important to notice the results embodied in a scheme of a 

 proposed classification of the fungi which Brefeld tabulates at the end 

 of his valuable paper, since we have here a comprehensive view of the 

 direction in which modern speculations in mycology were tending. 



In the accompanying diagram I have slightly condensed Brefeld's 

 scheme, since the original contains details of little importance for our 

 present purpose. 



'Ann. des Sc. Nat.,' ser. 6, t. iv, 1878. 



' Hedwigia,' 1879— see also Raljenhorst's ' Kryptogamen Flora.' 



1 Schimmelpilze,' Heft iii, 1877. 



