CHAPTER III. —SPORES OF FUNGI. ol 
others perform no such function and are therefore only simple pores or pits. The 
position of the pores on the membrane is different in different species. The spores, 
for instance, of Sordaria fimiseda, de Not. have at their apex a germ-pore which is 
closed only by the outermost lamella of the membrane (Fig. 52). The germ-pores 
of the uredospores which I have examined, those of Puccinia for example and 
Uromyces, are sharply defined round holes in the endosporium, and are closed by 
the episporium on the outside ; those of the teleutospores of the same genera appear 
to be pits in the episporium, which do not however extend into its outermost lamellae 
and seem to be closed on the inner side by the unpierced endosporium. Some, perhaps 
many, uredospores (those of Puccinia graminis for instance) show a pit at their point 
of attachment which is of no service for germination (Fig. 51). The spores of some 
Basidiomycetes, as Hymenogaster Klotzschii, are furnished with a pit at the same 

FIG. 50. Chrysomyxa Rhododendri. FIG. 51. Puccinia graminis. Small portion 
Basidium from an aecidium bearing a of a hymenium; z uredospores with four germ- 
chain of spores. For the explanation see pores in their aequator, ? a pair of teleuto- 
the accompanying text and on page 7r. spores, the upper one with a germ-pore in 
Magn. 600 times. its apex. Magn. 390 times, 
place which seems to belong to the episporium. The majority of the spores of the 
Basidiomycetes have no pit at this spot, but are prolonged into a small stalk which 
Corda? mistook for a pit. This stalk, as far as I could ascertain in the large-spored 
Corticium amorphum (see Fig. 30), is mainly a continuation or protuberance of the 
endosporium, over which the episporium is not continued or is present only as a very 
thin membrane ; the stalk itself shows a narrow lumen, or its membrane is thickened 
to such an extent that the cavity has disappeared. There is no germ-pore in any of 
these spores at the point of insertion. The spore of Coprinus has one germ-pore, 
according to Brefeld, in the apex. 

1 Anleitg. p. XXXII. ? Schimmelpilze, III. 
