116 LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
useful variation of the usual sac-like form. These spores 
are able to form another generation of sporophyta, and 
their spores in turn yet another until the conditions of the 
environment are such as to necessitate the recurrence to 
the gamophyte stage. 
How will this terminology apply lastly in the higher 
Fungi, such as the Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes ? 
In the case of the Ascomycetes, the embryo (fertilized 
ascogone) becomes an intermediate formation (sporocarp, 
sclerotium, &c.) which forms what are known as asco- 
spores. Each of these ascospores is capable of forming a 
sporophyte (mycelium), which produces spores (gonidia) 
on sporangial stalks (gonidiophores). The reduplication of 
the embryo is only another example of the many methods 
found among Fungi of increasing the chances of their re- 
maining permanently on the face of the earth, comparable to 
the phenomenon known as embryonic blastogenesis among 
animals, Naturally the formation of these delayed products 
of sexual union involves the development of an interme- 
diate structure, the so-called sclerotium or fructification. 
Lastly, among the Basidiomycetes the sexual generation 
is entirely wanting, the sporophyte being able to produce 
spores in such numbers that all chance of possible extinc- 
tion is done away with, while the plant probably obtains 
something corresponding to a sexual stimulus from the 
medium on which it lives, as suggested by Marshall Ward.* 
The following table explains itself. The life histories of 
a few representative groups of vegetals are represented 
with the names in ordinary use for their reproductive 
organs and stages affixed, whilst at the top of table is 
given the life history of a typical form, with the corres- 
ponding terms employed, as suggested above. 
* “Sexuality of Fungi.” Q. J. M. S., 1884. 
