CHAPTER V.—COMPARATIVE REVIEW.—-BASIDIOMYCETES, 331 
sporangia no germinating spore was observed among the multitude of gemmae with 
their germ-tubes, only the successive disorganisation of the spores. 
Section XCII. If putting Sphaerobolus on one side we consider the course of 
development in the Basidiomycetes which have been described above and which have 
been carefully examined, we find that in the simplest case, which is sometimes the one 
exclusively observed, the germinating basidiospore gives rise directly to a mycelium, 
the branches of which become sporophores producing basidia without the interposition 
of any special intermediate members at all comparable with archicarps. 
The circumstances which, as was intimated above, may produce complications 
in this scheme are of the following kind. In describing the germination of the 
basidiospores of Exobasidium and Dacryomyces in pages 328 and 329, it was stated 
that the spore can under certain circumstances produce a great abundance of sprouts, 
or may abjoint small cells acrogenously from short germ-tubes. These small cells 
are round in Dacryomyces and about 2 » long, and in nutrient solutions they give rise 
to germ-tubes, which may develope into filamentous and often large mycelia. These 
mycelial hyphae and those also which proceed from basidiospores may abjoint small 
cells in crowded tufts, which differ from the first in being ellipsoidal or rod-like in form, 
but agree with them in giving rise to a mycelium with similar products. We learn 
from Brefeld especially that similar phenomena have been observed in many 
Tremellineae in forms which vary according to the species. The mycelium from 
which these cells are abjointed may then produce the basidia-bearing compound 
sporophores of Dacryomyces. The cells in question are, according to this description, 
spores, but we may also call them by analogy gonzdia, if we wish to maintain the 
traditional use of the word spore for basidiogenetic cells. 
Gonidia in the same sense of the word and with essentially the same characters 
occur also in some Tremellineae on the sporophores which produce basidia; such are 
the cells capable of germination in form like a bent rod which are abjointed at the slender 
extremities of hyphae in depressions with thickened and rounded margins in the 
compound sporophores of Tremella Cerasi, Tul. The small round ‘cells also 2 » in 
diameter, which according to Tulasne are abjointed like small heads on the extremities 
of much branched hyphae in the hymenial layer of Tremella mesenterica, may be of the 
same kind, though their germination has not yet been observed. Another form of goni- 
dium, distinguished by the name of gemma and produced no doubt by external causes 
which have yet to be ascertained, is found in the compound sporophores of Dacryo- 
myces deliquescens. The presence of these cells is shown from without by their making 
the parts of the sporophores where they are formed turn from their normal clear amber- 
yellow colour to a dark orange. The hyphae swell and their cells become filled with 
a densely granular substance of a dark orange colour. The cells separate from one 
another when placed in water, and each may then give rise to a mycelium with the 
characters which have been describedabove. Klebs especially has obtained compound 
sporophores producing basidia from gemmae cultivated on microscopic slides. 
The mycelia produced in nutrient solutions from the basidiospores of most of 
the Coprini which have been examined and of Typhula may form small rod-like 
gonidia, like those just described in the Tremellineae, before they arrive at the 
formation of typical compound sporophores. These are long slender filiform 
cylindrical bodies formed, often several side by side, in a tuft at the extremities or 
