2 BOTAXICAL GAZETTE [july 



the bulbs. By watching these flats, fruit bodies were found in 

 all stages of development. 



Materials for morphological studies were fixed in chrom- 

 acetic (Flemming's or Benda's) solutions, dehydrated, cleared in 

 either xylol or bergamot oil, and sectioned in paraffin. The most 

 satisfactory results were obtained with Benda's solution. The 

 basidiocarps were so filled with grit that many fruit bodies were 

 treated with 10 per cent hydrofluoric acid for 48 hours before 

 being dehydrated. The walls of the peridium and peridioles were 

 at best very hard, especially in older basidiocarps, and this, together 

 with the extreme gelatinization of the filaments which takes place 

 during development, made the sectioning very difficult. 



Cultures. — Artificial cultures were first obtained during the 

 early spring of 19 14 from material collected at a local greenhouse. 

 The inoculum used was the peridioles from the nearly mature 

 but unopened basidiocarps. The fruit bodies were treated with 

 a 1 . 5-1000 solution of mercuric chloride for a few minutes; the epi- 

 phragm was then removed with sterile tweezers, and the peridioles 

 removed and planted on sterile agar media. Pure cultures were 

 obtained repeatedly in this way, and also by searing the epiphragm 

 with a hot scalpel and then removing the peridioles. An abundant 

 pure white mycelium showing frequent clamp connections developed 

 at once upon any of the ordinary agar media used in laboratories. 

 Fig. 1 shows a culture of this kind which is five days old. 



Mycelium in this' condition was fixed, stained, and mounted 

 in Venice turpentine. The mycelium branched abundantly, the 

 branches turning at once in the direction of the growth of the 

 main branch, and coming to lie near and parallel to the main branch. 

 The mycelium was very constantly binucleate, and showed abun- 

 dant clamp connections. 



Mycelium from the agar cultures was transferred to sterile loam, 

 old leaves, half rotten wood, etc., in flask cultures. On such 

 media the mycelium made a very vigorous growth, and strong 

 mycelial strands developed (figs. 2, 4-8). Cultures usually dried 

 out before the formation of basidiocarps, and so water was added 

 from time to time. In this way individual cultures were kept 



■ 



growing for several years. When cultures were kept in the light 



