LYMAN: STUDIES OF HYMENOMYCETES. 
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terminally a single, smooth, ellipsoidal or lemon-shaped spore (pi. 18, 
fig. 13), which is attached to the sporophore by a persistent shank or 
stipe, and bears at the apex, opposite the stipe, a slender, tapering 
lash. The body of the mature spore is yellowish to deep reddish, 
very thick-walled, 10-15 p wide by 12-20 p long, and contains dense 
protoplasm with one or more prominent vacuoles. The stipe is empty, 
of the same diameter as the sporophore (3-4 p), about as long as the 
inflated portion of the spore, and is usually lighter in color than the 
latter. The lash is flexuous, hyaline, empty, 1.5-2.5 p in diameter 
and frequently very long (20-75 p). The paraphyses which are 
intermingled with the sporophores, are long, slender, hyaline, non- 
septate hairs, of about the same diameter as the sporophores among 
which they arise, and are undoubtedly of the same nature with them, 
for abnormalities are present showing all gradations between para¬ 
physes and normal sporophores with fully developed spores. 
Cultivation of basidiospores .— Some difficulty was experienced in 
securing germination in most media tried, but moderate success was 
attained with prune decoction. The large spores germinate in two 
or three days, usually producing two or more germ tubes (pi. 18, fig. 
4-5). The young mycelium is composed of hyaline hyphae of rather 
small size (1.5-3 p), which are devoid of clamps, and without any dis¬ 
tinguishing peculiarities. The substratum becomes covered with a 
cottony growth which is at first white, and later frequently shows 
brownish red spots and patches, the color being located partly in the 
hyphae and partly in excreted material. Clamp connections are 
apparently not formed in this fungus, as repeated search has failed 
to reveal them. No oidia, chlamydospores, or conidia were found 
upon the mycelia, although occasionally certain enlargements of the 
hyphae at first seemed indicative of the formation of chlamydospores, 
but they always failed to develop. In potato-agar tubes one month 
old the brownish red spots mentioned above become especially numer¬ 
ous and often enlarge to form pustules of considerable size; exami¬ 
nation shows that they frequently contain many Michenera spores. 
Wood cultures also yield abundant Michenera fructifications. Thus 
far the writer has not been able to secure the completion of the life 
history by the production of basidiosporic hymenia in pure cultures. 
Portions of the mycelium sometimes assume the color and appearance 
of a hymenium, but examination of these regions has always failed 
to reveal basidia. 
