HOW MUSHROOMS ARE REPRODUCED. 
77 
from tlie cystidia ; and it is quite possible that the same phe- 
nomenon holds good in many other fungi, as in the tears of 
Merulius lacrymans , and in the drops found upon such species 
as Polyporus dryadeus , P. hispidus , P. cuticulccris , and many 
others. It, seems probable that in some species this liquid, 
which by a differentiation produces spermatozoids, also sends 
the spores into a temporary resting condition, and that the 
spores rest before germination, just in the same way as many 
seeds rest. This would explain the great difficulty of getting 
some fungus-spores to germinate. Under any circumstances 
diverse fungus-spores resemble seeds in the fact of some 
germinating at once, whilst others will not germinate till long 
periods of time have elapsed. 
On examining the semi-milky drops as seen on the stem, 
I have been unable to observe any production of spermatozoids, 
but these intermediate cystidium-like bodies are expelled from 
the stem and fall into the drops of moisture distilled. This 
is a state of things to be expected, for as these bodies belong 
to neither basidia or cystidia, they are as a consequence quite 
as unable to produce spermatozoids as spicules and spores. In 
Agarics and Boleti the stem may be considered as a mere barren 
hymenium; when the stem is striate (as it commonly is), these 
striae represent the absent gills ; in species with decurrent gills, 
the fruiting surface (as in Agaricus prunulus) sometimes quite 
reaches the ground. When the stem in Boletus is reticulated, 
the reticulations represent the absent tubes, so that it should 
be a matter of no surprise to find organs pertaining to the 
hymenium upon the stem. The external surface of the pileus, 
for the same reason, often bears besidia and spores, and the 
stuffed stem and cartilaginous bark answers to the trama and 
hymenial surface. An Agaric or Boletus with the pileus and 
gills arrested would answer to a Clavaria bearing fruit all over 
the club, and abnormal Agarics are sometimes found iff this 
condition, whilst the simplest form of Hymenomycetes is where 
a merely filmy hymenium is developed, as in Hymenula. 
When it is remembered how innumerable are the myriads of 
spores and spermatozoids set free every autumn, and how pro- 
bable it is that hybrids of every degree are produced from these 
bodies, the diverse and almost countless forms seen in the 
mushroom-tribe quite cease to be a matter of wonder. Without 
doubt the spermatozoids of some species commonly pierce the 
spores of an ally, and so produce plants intermediate between 
one species and another ; such forms are an everyday experi- 
ence with fungologists and lichenologists, and the more one 
knows of species as species the greater are the difficulties to be 
surmounted in correct naming. Fries himself says, under 
Mycena, that he has only given the best marked species, and 
