134 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
spored, possess conidiophores bearing from one to five spores in 
addition to the normal basidia. He believes that both species have 
descended from the same conidial ancestor. But the mere variation 
in the number of spores on the basidium cannot be considered of 
great importance in this connection for it is of common occurrence in 
various species, e. g., Exobasidium has from three to eight spores on 
a basidium, Corticium alutaceum (Schrad.) Bres. has from four to 
eight spores, etc. Moreover, in species where the number of spores 
on a basidium is practically constant under normal circumstances, 
variations become frequent under unnatural conditions of growth, as 
in artificial cultures. Hence this fact in itself can hardly be regarded 
as of phylogenetic significance. 
The morphology of the basidium and basidiospore of Pachysterigma 
Ols., and of Muciporus Juel, is a disputed matter. According to 
Patouillard (’88) the primary outgrowths from the basidium are 
huge sterigmata which correspond to the divisions of the four-parted 
basidium of Tremella; these bear basidiospores which become de¬ 
tached from the sterigmata and germinate by the formation of short 
promycelia, each bearing a single conidium. This opinion is also 
held by Brefeld (’89) and Hennings (’97), while Juel (’97, ’98), after 
a study of the nuclear processes in the basidium, interprets the large 
sterigmata of Patouillard as sessile basidiospores which germinate 
in situ and produce secondary spores (the basidiospores of Patouillard) 
on short promycelia. If we accept the conclusions of Juel, we have 
the interesting phenomena of two generations of promycelia and conidia 
intervening between the basidiospore and the normal mycelium. 
The germination of the basidiospore by the formation of a promy¬ 
celium bearing one or more conidia is the distinguishing characteristic 
of Patouillard’s Basidiomycetes heterobasidies, a division which 
includes all the Protobasidiomycetes, together with the Dacryomy- 
uetaceae and the genera Pachysterigma and Muciporus of the Auto- 
basidiomycetes. The Exobasidiaceae also frequently show this 
phenomenon, although Patouillard does not include them in the 
above group. Brefeld also reports the same method of germination 
in Radulum laetum (see p. 137). 
Hemigastraceae .— Juel (’95a, ’95b) describes from Upsala a new 
genus, Hemigaster, which he places near the Hypochnaceae, in the 
new family Hemigastraceae. The mature fructification is angio- 
carpic, and externally resembles Pilacre, but the younger stage has a 
