Spermogonia and the so-called Spermatia. 17 
arranged circumferentially. Morphologically, they present 
a great similarity to the spermogonia of the lichen-fungi, 
especially to those of Collema. 
Since our knowledge of the life-history of the lichen- 
fungi has been increased, from the facts added to it by 
Schwendener, De Bary, Stahl, and others, many botanists 
have come to look upon the Uredine spermatia as fertiliz- 
ing bodies, and to consider the AEcidiomycetes as being 
nearly allied to the Ascomycetes. There are, however, 
certain facts which cannot be overlooked. In the first 
place, the faculty which the Uredine spermatia have of 
multiplying themselves by budding in saccharine solutions 
in exactly the same manner as the spores of Saccharomyces, 
and also as Brefeld has shown the conidia of the Ustila- 
gineze do in his xdhrlésung, points rather to their being 
conidia than spermatia. 
Then, again, it is not asserted that all spore-forms of 
the Uredinez are sexual—this is claimed as probable for 
the zecidiospores alone ; true it is that the zecidia are almost 
always accompanied by spermogonia, but this is not in- 
variably the case. De Bary* cultivated a single plant 
of Sempervivum affected with Exdophyllum sempervivi 
which bore no spermogonia, but the zcidial cups were 
perfectly developed, and their spores germinated in the 
normal manner. In the autumn of 1883, I transplanted 
into my garden a wild plant of Zvragopogon pratensis 
affected with the Aécidium. During the spring and 
summer of 1884, this plant continued to produce a suc- 
cession of zcidia, the spores from which were used for 
infecting seedlings of Tragopogon. This they successfully 
did, causing the development of the teleutospores, with 
their scanty accompaniment of uredospores. I was never 
able to find any spermogonia upon this Tragopogon, 
* De Bary, ‘‘ Morphol. und Physiol.,” st edit. p. 169, 
Cc 
