323 
Centrospheres in Fungi . 
as to their archoplasmic nature is justified. I shall speak of 
them in this paper as archoplasmic bodies, simply for con- 
venience, and not with any intention of definitely stating that 
they are such. 
It is only by the most careful preparation and staining 
that these bodies can be seen at all. In cases where the 
sections have been but slightly overstained they have been 
visible only with great difficulty, and in badly stained specimens 
they could not be seen at all. The method used has been 
already referred to in a previous paper 1 , and it will not be 
necessary to further allude to it here. 
At present I have only been able to observe these archo- 
plasmic bodies in connexion with the nuclei of A. galericulatus , 
but I have now and then observed with difficulty structures 
resembling them in the basidia of A. stercorarius and A. 
mucidus , but probably on account of the density of the 
protoplasm or of some imperfection in the method of pre- 
paration, I have not been able to see them clearly. The 
observations in this paper must be confined therefore to 
A. galericulatus . The process of nuclear division in the 
basidia of this species is identical with that already described 
in A. stercorarius and A. muscarius , with the exception of the 
appearance of the archoplasmic bodies. 
If we examine a full-sized basidium, in which nuclear 
division has not yet commenced, we find that it contains 
a single large nucleus of elongate shape, placed about half- 
way up it, the long axis of which coincides with the long 
axis of the basidium. The remainder of the basidium is 
filled with granular protoplasm, which, fortunately, does not 
stain very deeply, so that the nucleus and the archoplasmic 
bodies are capable of being clearly differentiated. The nucleus 
possesses a somewhat indistinct nuclear membrane. Inside 
the nuclear membrane is a very distinct loose network in 
which the chromatin-granules can be distinctly seen, and 
a very large deeply stained nucleolus, generally placed on 
1 Loc. cit., Annals of Botany, Vol. vii. 
