22 FUNGI. 
series of spores is quite possible. Basidia exhausted entirely of 
their contents, and which have become quite hyaline, may often 
be observed. 
The cystidia are usually larger than the basidia, varying ir 
size and form in different species. They present the appearance 
of large sterile cells, attenuated upwards, sometimes into a 
slender neck. Corda was of opinion that these were male 
organs, and gave them the name of pollinaires. Hoffmann has 
also described* both these organs under the names of pollinaria 
and spermatia, but does not.appear to recognize in them the 
sexual elements which those names would indicate ; whilst 
de Seynes suggests that the cystidia are only organs returned to 
vegetative functions by a sort of hypertrophy of the basidia.t 
This view seems to be supported by the fact that, in the section 
Pluteus and some others, the cystidia are surmounted by short 
horns resembling sterigmata. Hoffmann has also indicated { 
the passage of cystidia into basidia. The evidence seems to be in 
favour of regarding the cystidia as barren conditions of basidia. 
There are to be found upon the hymenium of Agarics a third 
kind of elongated cells, called by Corda§ basilary cells, and by 
Hoffmann “sterile cells,” which are either equal in size or smaller 
than the basidia, with which also their structure agrecs, except- 
ing in the development of spicules. These are the “ proper cclls 
of the hymenium” of Lévcillé, and are simply the terminal cells 
of the gill structure—cells which, under vigorous conditions, 
might be developed into basidia, but which are commonly 
arrested in their development. As suggested by de Seynes, the 
hymenium seems to be reduced to great simplicity, ‘one sole 
and self-same organ is the basis of it; according as it experiences 
an arrest of development, as it grows and fructifies, or as it 
becomes hypertrophied, it gives us a paraphyse, a basidium, or 
a cystidium—in cther terms, atrophied basidium, normal basi- 
* ¢ Die Pollinarien und Spermatien von Agaricus,” in ‘‘ Botanische Zeitung,” 
Feb. 29 and March 7, 1856. 
+ ‘Essai d'une Flore mycologique de la Région de Montpellier.” Paris, 1863. 
- t Hoffmann, ‘‘ Botanische Zeitung,” 1856, p. 139. 
8 Corda, ‘‘ Icones Fungorum hucusque cognitorum,”’ iii. p, 41. Prague, 1832, 
