SPERMOGONES. 
31 
organs or spermogones, are developed from the same my- 
celium ; but the value of the latter is still undetermined. If 
they possess any fecundative power, the process has not been 
traced ; or if they are in themselves reproductive,, they have 
not at present been seen to germinate. Their uses, therefore, 
in the economy of the parasitic plant of which they are now 
known to form a part is still a mystery, and they remain 
valueless in the determination of genera and species. Any 
speculation which might regard them as male organs would 
be premature, and without support in fact. Hitherto only 
some species of the genera described in the foregoing chapter, 
and others belonging to genera not hitherto named, have 
been ascertained to possess spermogones. Of the former are 
the Rcestelia of pear leaves, some species of Mcidium, as those 
of j Euphorbia, &c., and Peridermium Pini. 
These spermogones are of a very simple structure — very 
delicate, indeed; so much so, that they will scarcely bear 
preparation for demonstration. De Bary states that they 
originate from plain, delicate, inarticulate threads, about half 
the thickness of the mycelium (the root-like branching fibres 
which form the fundamental stratum of fungoid growths), 
which are developed in large quantities, and closely packed 
together. These threads are compacted together so as to form 
an outer enveloping integument or peridium, which is either 
globular or hemispherical (or in some instances elongated), 
more or less immersed, and at length opening at the apex by 
a regularly formed minute ostiolum. The inner wall of the 
peridium is covered with a thick forest of simple filaments 
standing on end. From the summit of these filaments or 
sterigmata, the spermatia are borne. These are either isolated 
or associated together in strings or chaplets, are exceedingly 
minute, of an ovoid or oblong shape, and are produced in 
such numbers as to fill the cavity of the spermogone. Besides 
these, a viscid fluid fis secreted, in which the spermatia are 
immersed, and which is expelled with them from the orifice of 
the peridium. According to the density of this fluid, or the 
hygrometric state of the atmosphere, it appears sometimes in 
drops, and sometimes oozing out in threads or cirrhi from the 
spermogones. To compare minute things with gigantic, as a 
recent author has observed, it resembles the lava issuing from 
the crater of a volcano. The colour of this spermatiferous 
matter is commonly orange, but in some instances brown, 
though not constantly of the same colour as the spores pro- 
duced from the same mycelium. This gelatinous substance is 
dissolved away from the granular bodies which are immersed 
in it, by adding a little water upon the slide on which the 
mass is placed for examination. The granules, or spermatia, 
