364 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BASIDIA 
IN TREMELLA AND DACRYOMYCES.* 
HAROLD WAGER, F.R.S. 
The basidium of Tremclla is spherical and becomes filled with 
dense protoplasm. In the very young stages two nuclei are 
present. These fuse together to form the single basidium 
nucleus, which increases very much in size and becomes very 
prominent in the later stages. This nucleus divides trans- 
versely ; a wall then appears between the daughter nuclei, 
dividing the basidium logitudinally into two cells. Each of 
the two daughter nuclei undergoes a further division, with 
accompanying cell division, so that the basidium is now 
divided into four cells. From the apex of each cell a sterigma 
is produced, the apex of which swells up to form a spore, into 
which the cell nucleus passes. In the first division of the 
nucleus eight chromosomes are found. These separate into 
two groups of four each. In the division of die two daughter 
nuclei only four chromosomes appear, and these divide by 
fusion into two groups of four each. The somatic nuclei of 
the Fungus also contain only four chromosomes each. 
In Dacryomyces, the basidium is an elongate cell con- 
taining dense protoplasm. At a very early stage two minute 
deeply stainable bodies are to be observed. These are prob- 
ably nuclei. At a later stage a single large nucleus is clearly 
seen, and by subsequent division of this nucleus four nuclei 
are produced. At the apex of this basidium two scerigmata 
are formed each of which produces a spore. One nucleus at 
least passes into each spore. The fate of the other two nuclei 
has not been ascertained. According to Maire the basidium 
produces two. sets of spores successively, and these two nuclei 
pass into the second lot of spores. X'o satisfactory evidence 
for this statement has however, been adduced, and it is not 
impossible that the four nuclei may pass in pairs into the 
two spores. The division of the basidium nucleus shows the 
usual eight chromosomes, and four chromosomes appear in 
the subsequent divisions and in the somatic nuclei. 
: o : 
In The Scottish Naturalist for November are notes on Passerine Birds 
found migrating in moult, by L. J. Rintoul and E. V. Baxter ; and T any - 
tarsus signatus, a new British fly from Inverness-shire, by Percy H. 
Grimshaw. 
The 4 coral insect ’ is not dead yet : the reviewer of a zoological work 
in no less a paper than The Times, is so ignorant of natural history that he 
does not know the difference between a coral polyp and a six-legged bug. 
(See the Times Literary Supplement, 22nd October, 1914, p. 467). 
* Abstract of a paper read at the Yorkshire Fungus Foray at Sandsend. 
Naturalist 
