FOSSILIZED PRE‐PATOUILLARDIAN TAXONOMY?

Summary It is not possible to define a phragmobasidium or a holobasidium rationally without analysing whether the types of septa present in metabasidia and sterigmata are primary or adventitious. The type of septum formed is related to definite cytological changes. The occurrence of adventitious septa in metabasidia and sterigmata is reported in several species. It is not considered possible to use any combination of Patouillard's criteria of the subclasses Heterobasidiomycetes and Homobasidiomycetes to formulate a new classification of Basidiomycotina into mutually exclusive classes; nevertheless, these criteria remain important at lower levels of classification. Lowy's recent classification is not accepted (Lowy, 1968). Two alternative classifications are suggested.