668 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
Fungus-parasite of Spirogyra.* — Herr Y. Chmielewskij attributes 
the formation of the “ stellate bodies ” in cells of Spirogyra to a fungus 
which he names Micromyces Spirogyrse. They are a resting-stage, and 
were made to germinate in hanging drops. The contents escape, and 
form a spherical body, surrounded by a very delicate membrane ; this 
divides into a number of wedge-shaped cells, which are no doubt 
zoosporanges, though the formation of zoospores was not actually ob- 
served. The infected filaments soon die ; the zoospores attack other 
filaments ; the germinating fungus puts out pseudopodes, and the whole 
organism then becomes encysted, and passes into the resting stellate 
condition. 
Classification of the Basidiomycetes. — M. P. Van Tieghem-f pro- 
poses the following classification of the Basidiomycetes ; — 
I. Acrospores : — Acrospore^j. 
A. Undivided (holobasids). 
a. Direct (euthybasids). 
a. Internal (angiospores). 
p. External (gymnospores). 
b. With probasids. 
B. Septated (phragmobasids). 
II. Pleurospores : — Pleurospores. 
A. Undivided (holobasids) 
B. Septated (phragmobasids). 
a. Direct (euthybasids). 
a. Internal (angiospores). 
/?. External (gymnospores). 
b. With probasids. 
a. Spores determinate. 
p. Spores indeterminate. 
Ly coper dacese. 
Agaricacese. 
Tilletiese. 
Tremellese. 
Tylostomese. 
Ecchynese. 
Auriculariese. 
Puccinacese. 
Ustilagese. 
The Basidiomycetes include all those fungi which have a thallus 
septated into immotile cells provided with a membrane of cellulose, and 
which produce their spores, usually in a definite number, on mother-cells 
specially called basids. The spores may be termed acrospores if formed 
at the summit, pleurospores if formed at the side of the basid. Dividing 
the Basidiomycetes into the two primary divisions of Acrospores and 
Pleurospores, each of these may again be subdivided into Holobasidese 
and Phragmobasidese , depending on the absence or presence of septa. 
The next character is derived from the circumstance whether the basids 
spring directly from the filaments of the sporiferous apparatus, euthy- 
basids, or whether through the intervention of a probasid on a kind of cyst, 
as in the Uredinese. In the ordinary literature of mycology such spores 
are erroneously called sporids, and the probasids, sporidia ; the basids 
being also incorrectly denominated a promycele. 
The Lycoperdacese comprise the Gasteromycetes, with the exception 
of the Tylostomese and the Ecchynese (the Pilacrese of Brefeld), which 
are erected into distinct families. The Agaricacese include the Hymeno- 
mycetes and the Dacryomycetes. The Ustilaginese and the Tilletiese 
* ‘ Ueb. d. Sternkorper in Spirogyra-7ie\\eTx’ 6 pp., 1892. See Bot. CentraJbl., 
liv. (1893) p. 262. t Journ. de Bot. (Morot), vii. (1893) pp. 77-87. 
