356 Groom. — On Thismia Aseroe (. Beccari ) 
not actually establish their continuity. Hence I cannot posi- 
tively assert that the spore-producing hyphae belonged to the 
mycorhizal Fungus, yet there seems little doubt that such was 
the case. If the sporogenous hyphae were really a part of 
the mycorhizal mycelium, their irregular direction of growth 
must be attributed to the removal of the directive influence of 
the host-cells and to the breaking down of the protoplasm of 
the latter. If, on the other hand, the sporogenous hyphae 
belong to some other Fungus which could not enter the thallus 
as a parasite till the latter had already lost some of its vitality 
and the mycorhizal hyphae were already weakened, then the 
obvious analogy between the symbiosis of mycorhiza of 
Thismia and phagocytosis becomes still more marked. 
In Galeola javanica I further saw some of the superficial cells 
packed with similar spores. Wahrlich observed and figured 
spores, just like those in Thismia , in the velamen of Orchids 
infected with mycorhizal hyphae ; and further was able to 
prove that they were produced by segmentation of the hyphae 
and rounding off of the cells (i. e. this represented the oi'dium- 
stage of life-history), as I also believe was the case in Thismia. 
But Wahrlich makes no definite statement that he actually 
observed the continuity between the mycorhizal hyphae and 
these spore-producing hyphae, though one reading his paper 
would gather that he had seen such a connexion. Mollberg 
also saw similar spores in the mycorhiza of Platanthera and 
Epipactis . Kuhn detected, inside Marattiaceous mycorhiza, 
some thick-walled spores. Schacht, Reissek, and Wahrlich 
obtained Fusisporium- spores from cultures of orchid-my- 
corhiza ; and I saw these Fusisporium- spores on every thallus 
of Thismia. However, apart from this suggestive, though 
not conclusive, evidence of spore-production by the mycorhizal 
hyphae, there is quite sufficient proof that the endotrophic 
Fungus is not wholly destroyed , but on the contrary there is 
strong reason for believing that in the outer layers of the 
absorbing organ it actually profits by the symbiosis. 
Hence there is no justification for giving the misleading 
name of fungus-trap ( Pilzfalle ) to mycorhiza, or for referring 
