LYMAN: STUDIES OF HYMENOMYCETES. 
181 
of vitality by the conidia. Hence cultures were made of conidia 
which had apparently barely attained the mature size, but even then 
few put forth germ tubes and many were seen to be incapable of 
germination in that they contained little or no protoplasm. It was 
found that a much larger percentage of germination is obtained by 
transferring a mixture of conidia and basidiospores to the drop culture, 
or by placing in the cell a bit of mycelium-bearing agar from a tube 
culture. The presence of the growing hyphae appears to exercise a 
stimulating influence on the conidia. 
From his experiments the writer inclines to the belief that the conidia 
have partially lost the power of germination, and that they are not now 
of great importance in the reproduction of the plant. It seems proba¬ 
ble that the fungus depends for propagation during its mycelial con¬ 
dition on the chlamydospores which are produced in abundance and 
germinate readily under ordinary conditions, and that the conidia have 
degenerated through disuse. 
As in the case of the chlamydospores of this species, conidia are 
produced indiscriminately on both primary and secondary mycelia, 
but unlike the chlamydospores the conidia always give rise on germi¬ 
nation to primary (clampless) mycelia which are of much longer 
duration than are those formed by the basidiospores. Clamps were 
rarely seen even in very old cell cultures of conidia, although they 
were finally found in abundance in transfers to agar tubes where the 
normal secondary mycelium develops. After the clamped hyphae 
appear, the culture agrees in every way with one originating from a 
basidiospore,— producing chlamydospores, conidia, and ultimately 
a basidiosporic hymenium. It is interesting to note that succeeding 
generations of cultures raised from conidia show a considerable in¬ 
crease in conidial production, and also that conidia from such cultures 
show a larger percentage of germination,— facts which appear to 
support the theory that the conidia are degenerating and that by 
cultivation their function may be recovered, at least in a measure. 
Lentodium squamulosum Morgan. 
PI. 22, fig. 106-125; pi. 23, fig. 126-128; pi. 24, fig. 129-132; 
pi. 25, fig. 133-136. 
Typical specimens of this peculiar fungus were collected during 
three successive autumns at Waverley, Massachusetts, where they 
