CHAPTER V.—COMPARATIVE REVIEW.—-BASIDIOMYCETES. 333 
as small branches on the mycelium of Agaricus (Crepidotus) variabilis, P., on which 
1~2 slender adjacent branches supposed to be antheridiae usually did zof lay themselves, 
while the oosphere, without experiencing any further changes, became surrounded by 
a hyphal tissue which developed into the pileus. 
The question was subsequently resumed in connection with specimens of Coprinus 
cultivated on microscopic slides, especially by Reess', who thought he found spermatia 
in the small non-germinating ‘rods,’ and archicarps in the swollen extremities of the 
branches, but without clearly making out the participation of the two kinds of organs 
in the formation of the compound sporophores. Van Tieghem ? studied the species 
of Coprinus about the same time, and found spermatia in the small rod-like gonidial 
cells, and also discovered archicarps, which were fertilised by conjugation with the 
spermatia and then developed in very characteristic manner into compound sporo- 
phores; he even obtained a hybrid form by crossing the two species, but he very 
soon withdrew all these statements and has adhered from that time to the views 
expressed above. It was unfortunate that the declaration of this change of opinion 
coincided to the day with the first publication of Brefeld’s researches, and we must 
allow him the merit of finally clearing up the matter, because, as regards Van Tieghem, 
it would always have been a question which of the two diametrically opposite results 
arrived at within a space of ten months was after all the right one. 
Srction XCIII. We have no complete observations on the course of the 
development in the many other Hymenomycetes and Gastromycetes. But all that is 
known of them favours the view that their history 7 in general the same as that of 
the species with which we are perfectly acquainted in the essential points above desoribed, 
nor is anything known which could be a sufficient reason for objecting to this view. 
Besides the agreement in form and structure in the mature state, there is the un- 
varying fact that the commencements of the compound sporophores wherever dis- 
covered are formed, without the interposition of intermediate members, from hyphal 
bundles of the mycelium which have exactly the same origin as those which remain 
purely vegetative. R. Hartig’s careful observations on the wood-destroying Polyporeae, 
Thelephoreae, and Hydneae should be especially mentioned in this place in addition 
to the cases noticed in the foregoing descriptions. 
Secondly, the little that is known of the germination of the spores and of the first 
products of germination accords with the observations to which attention has been 
drawn above. This is not much; the spores of many Hymenomycetes when sown 
put out simple or branched germ-tubes ; non-germinating ‘rods’ are formed, according 
to Eidam’s observation‘, on Agaricus coprophilus, Bull. on the first commencement of 
mycelia grown in a nutrient fluid, and they appear in strings that are crowded 
together in tufts and twisted into curls and entangled with one another. In the great 
majority of the Gastromycetes the first products of germination have not been 
hitherto observed or the supposed observations are very doubtful®; germination may 
in their case depend on special and hitherto unknown conditions, or the circumstances 
may perhaps be the same as in Sphaerobolus. 
No doubt would be raised as to the agreement of all the Basidiomycetes in the 

1 Phys. Med. Ges. z. Erlangen, 14 Dec. 1874.—Pringsheim’s Jahrb. X, p. 179. 
2 Comptes rendus de l’Acad. d. Sc. Paris, 80 (1875), p. 373- 
3 Ibid., 81, p. 879 (15 Nov. 1875). 
4 Bot. Ztg. 1875, p. 649. 
5 See Hoffmann in Bot. Ztg. 1859, p. 217. 
