PROPAGATION OF FUNGI.

51

Besides these propagative bodies, other extremely minutebodies are produced either on threads or in distinct peritheciaor cells in certain Fungi, as Bulgaria inquinans , HysteriumRubi, etc., which from analogy are supposed to have some-thing to do with the impregnation of the normal fruit. Inthis case the organs which contained them are called antlie-ridia, or spermogonia, and the bodies themselves spermato-zoids. It is very doubtful at present whether the cells whichproject from the gills in Agaricus, Coprinus, Boletus, etc.,are of the same nature, but it must be remembered that inmany cryptogams the mode of impregnation far more closelyresembles that in animals than that in phaenogams, andtherefore it does not follow that a more perfect type may notexist amongst the lower than amongst the higher Fungi.Sometimes amongst the ascigerous Fungi, as in Nectriainaurata, there arc asci containing, the one eight sporidia, theother a multitude of minute granules. These secondary ascimay perhaps with as much justice be considered antlieridia asthe bodies mentioned above. It is observable, however, thatin the other cases the spermatozoids are always produced atthe tips of delicate threads or their branchlets, while theselittle bodies are produced freely in the sacs like sporidia. Itis to the Messieurs Tulasne that we are chiefly indebted forthis knowledge, as also for the curious facts which I am aboutto mention.

Tn many of the parasitic Fungi, belonging to the same sec-tion as the Wheat Mildew and Bunt, a very curious processtakes place. The reproductive organs, which from analogyare commonly called spores, do not directly propagate theplant. These bodies however germinate, and often at definiteI>oint8, exactly after the fashion of pollen-grains, and after atime produce on their threads secondary and sometimes ter-

e 2