STRUCTURE. 21 
with spores. The first peculiarity which will be observed is, 
that these spores are almost uniformly in groups of four 
together. The next feature to be observed is, that each spore 
is borne upon a silencer stalk or sterigma, and that four of these 
sterigmata proceed from the apex of a thicker projection, from 
the hymenium, called a basidinm, each basidium being the sup- 
porter of four sterigmata, and each sterigma of a spore.* A 
closer examination of the hymenium will reveal the fact that 
the basidia are accompained by other bodies, often larger, but 
without sterigmata or spores; these have been termed cys/idia, 
and their structure and functions have 
been the subject of much controversy.t 
Both kinds of bodies are produced on 
the hymenium of most, if not all, the 
Agaricini. 
The basidia are usually expanded 
upwards, so as to have more or less 
of a clavate form, surmounted by four 
slender points, or tubular processes, 
each supporting a spore; the contents 
of these cells are granular, mixed 
apparently with oleaginous particles, 
which communicate through — the 
slender tubes of the spicules with 
the interior of the spores. Corda a 
states that, although only one spore is sidin, t- Goataiaa oan Gone 
: phidius (de Seynes). 
produced at a time on each sporo- 
phore, when this falls away others are produced in succession 
for a limited period. As the spores approach maturity, the con- 
nection between their contents and the contents of the basidia 
diminishes and ultimately ceases. When the basidium which 
bears mature spores is still well charged with granular matter, 
it may be presumed that the production of a second or third 
* This was well delineated in ‘‘ Flora Danica,” plate 834, as observed in Cuprinus 
comatus as long ago as 1780. : 
++ A. de Bary, ‘‘ Morphologie und Physiologie der Pilze,” in ‘‘Hofmeister's Hand- 
buch,” vol. ii. cap. 5, 1866, translated in ‘‘ Grevillea,” vol. i. p. 181, 
