British Gastromycetes . 2 7 
usque familiae medii connectere videturV In the generic 
diagnosis of the genus Elaphomyces Tulasne describes the asci 
as follows : ‘ Sporangia, » floccorum fertillum extremae cellulae 
maxime turgldae et In sacculos mutatae, globoso obovatae, 
brevissime pedicellata, hyalina, 1-8 spora 2 / In Corda’s 
genus Phlyctospora , classed with the Tuberaceae, the asci are 
normally monosporous, but the ascus breaks away from its 
support and remains as a permanent hyaline sac surrounding 
the spore. Corda's explanation Is as follows : 4 Sporae aggre- 
gatae, compositae, decolorantes, substantia Immersae; episporio 
[ascus] cellulose hyalino, nncleo [spore] globoso colorato, 
firmo. Asci v. basidia nulla V Tulasne states that in the 
species of Hymenogaster , the spores, while yet attached to the 
basidia, are surrounded by a hyaline membrane many times 
larger than the diameter of the spore, and an examination of 
the figures of Hysterangium clathroides (t. xl, f. vii), Rhizopogon 
luteolus (t. xi, f. v 8 ), Hymenogaster decorus (t. x, £ 9*), and others, 
suggests the Idea of the asci being bifurcate at the apex. I 
have only been able to examine Hymenogaster tener and H. 
citrinus In connection with this idea, and am satisfied that the 
two spores borne by the basidia depend on the bifurcation of 
the basidium at the apex, and first appear as two sessile 
terminal papillae (Fig. 3 , f) ; as the papillae increase in size, 
each becomes constricted at the base (Fig. 1, a), and forms an 
apparent sterigma ; eventually the protoplasm in each papilla 
secrets a cell-wall, which becomes rough and coloured, and is 
now a spore, still surrounded by the original wall of the ascus. 
Before the cell-wall is secreted by the spore, a transverse 
septum forms across the sterigma, and the protoplasm in the 
spore-sac rounds itself off. Berkeley noticed long ago that 
the spores in many of the Hymenogastreae were at first sessile, 
the sterigma being an after-development ; but this Is not true 
of all species, compare Fig. 2 , a, and in the higher orders the 
sterigmata are formed before the spores, but the latter are 
1 TuL, Fung Hypog. ioi. 
2 Tul. 1 . c. p. 101. 
3 Corda, Sturm, Deutschl. FI., m te AbtheiL, 19-20 Heft (1S41), p. 51, 
