basidium

Basidiales.—This very large group of plants is characterized by the possession of a special type of conidiophore—the basidium, which gives its name to the group.

Exobasidiine�, a family of parasitic basidiomycetous Fungi, resembling the Exoascine� in most respects, but producing basidia in place of asci, a remarkable instance of parallel evolution.

They are characterized by their principal spores being produced externally, usually in fours, upon an organ called a basidium.

Ascomycetes.—In the plants of this family the spores are not supported upon basidia, but instead are enclosed in minute sacs or asci formed from the fertile cells of a hymenium.

All parts of these reddish individuals seemed more or less infected with this disintegration, the basidia divided by transverse diaphragms into several cylindrical or oblong pieces, which finally become free.