The Sexuality of the Fungi 1 , 
BY 
HAROLD WAGER. 
"VtONG the numerous remarkable and interesting obser- 
ii vations which have, in recent years, been made upon 
the cytology of the lower plants, those which throw light 
upon the sexual processes in the Fungi take a prominent 
place. Fifteen years ago 2 we knew that the Phycomycetes 
as a group were sexual, that the Ascomycetes, according to 
one school, exhibited phenomena which could be regarded 
as sexual, but that the other groups of Fungi exhibited no 
sexual features at all, unless certain cell-unions occurring 
in some forms could be regarded as such. We were practi- 
cally ignorant of their cytology, and even the presence of 
nuclei was regarded by many observers as doubtful. 
Now we are not only acquainted with the minute details 
of nuclear and cell division in a number of forms belonging 
to the different groups, but the cytological features of fertiliza- 
tion in the Phycomycetes have been investigated and the 
phenomena brought into line with those occurring in the 
higher plants and animals, so that we may say of this group, 
as of the higher plants and animals, that ‘ the act of fertilization 
1 Afternoon lecture delivered before the Botanical Section at the D over meeting 
of the British Association, 1899. 
2 See Marshall Ward, on the Sexuality of the Fungi, Q. J. M. S., vol. xxiv, 
1 884, for an excellent account of what was known at that time. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XIII. No. LII. December, 1899]. 
