CHAPTER V.—COMPARATIVE REVIEW.—HFMENOMFCETES. 305 
What function they have as hairs is still a matter of enquiry and is perhaps different 
in different cases. Brefeld’s suggestion is best worth considering, that they serve to 
protect the sporogenous basidia, and perhaps take part in the Agaricineae in loosening 
the appressed lamellae from the stipe. That they and especially the strikingly large 
vesicles of the Coprini were taken by the old observers’ for male sexual organs, and that 
this notion once put into print was repeatedly being discussed for more than a hundred 
years is a matter now only of a certain historical interest. The terms antheridia, 
anthers, Zollinaria owe their origin to these views. Further details respecting them 
will be found in older treatises on the formation of spores in the Basidiomycetes 
(see page 116), especially in Phoebus, in Tulasne®, and in the first edition of this book at 
page 170. 
The basidia themselves, and the formation of spores on them, have been already 
described in chapter III, pages 63, 64. We have only to add here that the club- 
shaped form of basidium putting out 2-4 sterigmata at its upper end, such as 
is represented in Figs. 28 and 30, and spores varying from round to fusiform, 
are found in all the Hymenomycetes which have been examined, except the Tre- 



SEHE NIEREN 
EDEN 

Ce 
\ 

FIG. 140. a—d Auricularia Auricula Fudae. Basidia and formation of spores. Successive stages of the de- 
velopment Ferse the figures. a a cylindrical terminal cell of a hypha, from which, 4, several definitive basidia 
ions ; each of the basidia sends out a long narrowly conical sterigma, c, d, from its upper 
extremity, and the swollen apex of the sterigma is abjointed to form a spore; x a sterigma from which the spore 
has dropp J Exidia spic Devel of basidia. Four basidia have been formed from the 
cell # by cruciform division, Younger and later stages of development are shown in the other parts of the figure: 
saspore. The dotted lines indicate the surface of the hymenium. a—d magn. 390 times, /after Tulasne, highly 
magnified. 



mellineae. The members of the latter group are distinguished by their variations 
from the general rule (Fig. 140). But there are intermediate forms. Dacryomyces, 
Calocera, Dacryomitra, Guepinia, and other genera have basidia which produce 
two spores and are distinguished from typical Hymenomycetes (Fig. 28) only by 
the sterigmata; these spring from a comparatively broad base and are so finely 
drawn out and to so great a length that the:basidia appear to have long pointed 
bifurcations. But these forms afford no ground for a more decided separation of the 
Tremellineae from the other Hymenomycetes. Tremella, Exidia, and Tremellodon 

” Micheli, Nova plant. genera.—Bulliard, Champ. de France, I, pp. 39-50. 
? Carpologia, I, p. 163. 
[4] x 
