CHAPTER XVIU 



BASIDLVBEARING FUNGI SMCTS 

 ORDER BASLDIOMYCET.YLES 



The fungi of this order have mostlv a strongly developed mvcdium, 

 multicellular and at Times with apical growth. Sexual reproduction is 

 entirely absent, yet in the rusts, we find certain nuclear fusions which 

 are looked upon by some mycologists as of a sexual nature. The 

 characteristic method of reproduction is non-sexual by means of conidia, 

 which in the most primitive forms are of indefinite number, 

 while in the most highly differentiated forms the conidiospores are 

 definite in number two to eight, and are borne on special conidio- 

 phores known as basidia (basidium-ia). In many forms, the basidia 

 are arranged in definite parts of fleshy fruit bodies and in special layers 

 known as hymenia (,h},-menium-ia). Besides the conidiospores other 

 kinds of qwres, knoinTi as chlamydospores, are formed. Zoospores axe 

 entirely absent. The fungi of the order are either saprophytes, or 

 parasites, and occasionally, they are facultative saproph3-tes. or faculta- 

 tive parasites. Noneof themlive in the water i oichtwasserbewohnend). 



The Ba5idiom},xetales do not follow the Ascom\-cetales in the direct 

 line of evolution of the fungi. They may be considered to parallel the 

 sac fungi. The group is supposed, in this regard, to represent the results 

 of extreme simplification; the sexual organs, if ever present, have in_ 

 the phvlogenetic history of these fungi long since disappeared and 

 simple nuclear fusions function in all probability in Menjji the sexual 

 act. 



KZY TO StJBOKBESS OE IHE B.4SIDIOjna^ETAI.E5 (AlTER STi:\"EXS I 



Chlamydospores at maturity free in a'sorus, produced intercalary, 

 from the mvcelium; basidiospores borne on a promyceUum and resem- 

 bling conidiospores. i. HemibasidiL 



Chlamydogwres absent, or when present, borne oit definite stalks. 



Basidia septate, arising from a resting ^pore, or borne directly- on a 

 hvmenium. 2. Protobasidn. 



Basidia non-septate, borne" on a h>Tnenium. 3. EobasidiL 



