ame of _pollinaires_. Hoffmann has also described[F] both these
organs under the names of _pollinaria_ and _spermatia_, but does not
appear to recognize in them the sexual elements which those names
would indicate; whilst de Seynes suggests that the cystidia are only
organs returned to vegetative functions by a sort of hypertrophy of
the basidia.[G] This view seems to be supported by the fact that, in
the section _Pluteus_ and some others, the cystidia are surmounted by
short horns resembling sterigmata. Hoffmann has also indicated[H] the
passage of cystidia into basidia. The evidence seems to be in favour
of regarding the cystidia as barren conditions of basidia. There are
to be found upon the hymenium of Agarics a third kind of elongated
cells, called by Corda[I] basilary cells, and by Hoffmann "sterile
cells," which are either equal in size or smaller than the basidia,
with which also their structure agrees, excepting in the development
of spicules. These are the "proper cells of the hymenium" of Leveille,
and are simply the terminal cells of the gill structure--cells which,
under vigorous conditions, might be developed into basidia, but which
are commonly arrested in their development. As suggested by de Seynes,
the hymenium seems to be reduced to great simplicity, "one sole and
self-same organ is the basis of it; according as it experiences an
arrest of development, as it grows and fructifies, or as it becomes
hypertrophied, it gives us a paraphyse, a basidium, or a cystidium--in
other terms, atrophied basidium, normal basidium and hypertrophied
basidium; these are the three elements which form the hymenium."[J]

The only reproductive organs hitherto demonstrated in Agarics are the
spores, or, as sometimes called, from their method of production,
_basidiospores_.[K] These are at first colourless, but afterwards
acquire the colour peculiar to the species. In size and form they are,
within certain limits, exceedingly variable, although form and size
are tolerably constant in the same species. At first all are globose;
as they mature, the majority are ovoid or elliptic; some are fusiform,
with regularly attenuated extremities. In _Hygrophorus_ they are
rather irregular, reniform, or compressed in the middle. Sometimes the
external surface is rough with more or less projecting warts. Some
mycologists are of opinion that the covering of the spore is double,
consisting of an _exospore_ and an _endospore_, the latter being