NAKED-SPORED FUNGI— BASIDIOMYCETES 123 



while the. mass is yet firm, and before there is the slightest 

 indication of a change of colour, the outer stratum of the walls 

 of these cavities is found to consist of pellucid obtuse cells, 

 placed parallel to each other like the pile of velvet, exactly as 

 in the hymenium of an Agaric or Boletus, but without any 

 trace of those processes which have been regarded by some 

 authors as male organs {cystidia). Occasionally one or two 

 filaments cross from one wall to the other, and once I have 

 seen these anastomose. At a more advanced stage of growth 

 four little spicules are developed at the tips of the sporo- 

 phores — all of which, as far as I have been able to observe, 

 are fertile and of equal height — and on each of these 

 spicules a globose spore is seated (Fig. 48). It is clear that 

 we have here a structure identical with that of the true Hy- 

 menomycetes, a circumstance which accords well 

 with the fleshy habit and mode of growth." In 

 his further observations, in reference to the 

 Phalloidei, he says that " the fructifying mass 

 consists of a highly sinuated hymenium. The 

 walls are composed of elongated, somewhat 

 spathulate, cells, surmounted with from four to 

 six spicules, each of which bears an oblong Fia _ 43.— Basid- 

 spore. The sporophores here again appear to ium and spores 

 be all fertile and of nearly the same height. It ° ■^ /cqper 

 will be observed that when the number exceeds four, the 

 additional spicule is seated between the two, which form one 

 side of a square, and that if a sixth is present it is placed 

 opposite to the fifth. Here again we have an Hymeno- 

 mycetous fungus, and there can be no doubt that the same 

 structure will be found in all the Phalloidei." 



Thus, then, the relationship between HymeTwmycetes and 

 Gastromycetes may be regarded as established. But Mr. George 

 Massee, who is nothing if not evolutionist, has some pertinent 

 remarks on this subject in a recent monograph. 1 He observes 

 that in the Hymenomyceteae " the progressive differentiation of 

 the sporophore persistently aims at one object, that of con- 

 cealing the hymenium until the spores are mature — a statement 



1 Monograph of the British Gastromycetes, by George Massee, p. 2. LondoD 

 1889. 



