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that he knows in his mind many other apparently distinct 
forms and species which he has never published. Our crypto- 
gamic floras require cutting down to at least one-fourth of 
their present dimensions by some competent botanist, who is 
well acquainted with species. In the majority of instances 
the species are so ill defined that it is the easiest possible 
matter to gather plants which it is simply impossible to refer 
to any described fungus, simply because the specimens gathered 
belong to none. 
The spore, as found amongst Agarics, I consider female in the 
sense of its pertaining to the female in the same way as an un- 
impregnated ovum may be considered a female organ whilst 
still attached to the mother, and the spermatozoids male, as 
pertaining to the male in the same way as spermatozoids are 
always the direct offspring of the male (as ova are of the female). 
When the spore is pierced by the spermatozoid, the former is 
capable on germination of producing either or both sexes. If 
these views are correct, a term is required for the unpierced 
spore synonymous with the ovule in flowering plants, as dis- 
tinguished from the seed ; and the old term sporule might well 
be used for indicating the unpierced spore. The spores in 
Agarics must be considered very different in nature from gemmae, 
or buds, and they are totally different from the conidia or 
conidio-spores of Penicillum and^the acro-spores of Mucor. The 
latter may reasonably be compared with the bulbils of Dentaria, 
and some Liliacese ; but the nature of the basidio-spores (and of 
the hymenium which carries them) points to a very different 
conclusion. It is a very common thing for the mycelial threads 
of all sorts of fungi to break up into bead-like conidia, and as 
these conidia or secondary spores have a certain reproductive 
power, there is here certainly a slight analogy with gemmae. 
The spores and spermatozoids in the Agaracini appear to me 
to have a strong analogy with the oosphere and spermatozoids 
of Fucus vesiculosus , the cystidia having an analogy with the 
antheridium in the same Alga. I have expressed an opinion 
elsewhere that Van Tieghem’s idea of male and female spores in 
the Agaricini is altogether untenable ; such a thing as a male 
ovum or spore is as unreasonable as a female spermatozoid or 
female pollen-grain. Seeds of all sorts are capable, on ger- 
mination, of producing either or both sexes, though it is com- 
mon enough to see one sex exalted at the expense of another. 
Even in the highest mammals the males have a trace of the 
female in the subordinate mammae and other characters, and 
similar characters which show a trace of the male are found 
in most female animals. 
In the vegetable kingdom nothing is more common than to 
find so-called male or female plants changing their characters. 
Males will, under altered conditions, carry female organs, and 
