Sketch of the Class Fungi, 



289 



which, in proportion as the evolution of the sporidia is perfected, gra- 

 dually clears and at length becomes transparent. This juice, during 

 life, is subject to an evident motion analogous to that which we have 

 observed in Botrytis Bassiana, Ascophora Mucedo, &c. From the summit 

 of the basidia spring threads (sterigmata, Corda [spicules, Berk.]), 

 generally four in number (basidia tetraspora), destined to support 

 the reproductive bodies. The number of these threads is normally 

 four, and then they are, as it were, verticillate at the free extremity 

 of the basidium, and disposed thus : : at the four angles of a square ; 

 but sometimes there are but two, the others being abortive. They 

 may even be reduced to unity ; but occasionally there are two addi- 

 tional threads, raising the number to six (basidia poly spor a), placed 

 at the extremities of the major axis of an ellipse thus • : : • ; or 

 finally, by the suppression of one, the number is reduced to five : : •. 

 These threads or peduncles are frequently swollen at their point of 

 attachment and apex. In some genera with monosporous basidia 

 (e.g. Tremella) the support is wanting, the sporidium resulting then 

 from a sort of strangulation of the tip of the basidium. The threads 

 are hollow, and communicate with the cavity of the basidia, that the 

 juices which contribute to the nourishment and increase of the spo- 

 ridia may reach them without any impediment. 



The sporidia, the object and end of vegetation, are bodies destined 

 to reproduce the fungus. In the whole family with which we are 

 occupied, these bodies are outward or acrogenous, and not enclosed 

 in special cells or endogenous, a character which approximates them 

 to Mucedines, in which are some genera (as Isaria, Ceratium, &c.) 

 which Messrs. Berkeley and Corda associate with Hymenomycetes, 

 the genus Clavaria forming a natural transition. The sporidia, which 

 are spherical, oval or oblong, straight or curved, smooth or rugged, 

 naked or echinulate, one- or more celled (e.g. Gomphus rutilus), are 

 composed, as in the majority of species of this vast class, of an epi- 

 sporium and a nucleus, sometimes accompanied by some drops of an 

 oleaginous substance, held in suspension in an opaline fluid, at length 

 grumous, which circulates in the basidia even after their complete 

 evolution. The episporium, formed of a single indehiscent cell, 

 bears at the point of attachment (at least in the species where this 

 is evident) either a little cavity, named by Corda hilum (Ic. Fung, 

 iii. t. 8. fig. 115, h), or a little conical obtuse or pointed nipple 

 (/. c, t. 7. fig. 99, h), indicating the place of the ancient aperture 

 by which the granular fluid (massa sporacea) of the basidia pene- 

 trated into the cavity of the episporium, before the formation of the 

 nucleus. This hollow or nipple is moreover the point by which 

 the sporidium was attached to the thread. As regards their direc- 

 tion, if they have, as in Mucedines, the same axis with the sterigma, 

 Corda calls them trepanotropous * ; if, as when they are attached 

 laterally, their axes are different, they are called pleurotropous. 

 These epithets are applied to the sporidia alone, when the direction 

 of their axis is compared with that of the axis of the threads. The 



* I should prefer orthotropous or homotropous. 



