5. Family Dacryomycetineæ. Fruit-body soft; hymenium on its surface; saprophytes. Dacryomyces, Calocera.
6. Group Hymenomycetes (several families). Hymenium generally on gills, in tubes, &c.; saprophytes or, less often, parasites. Agaricus Polyporus, Hydnum.
7. Group Gastromycetes (several families). Hymenium within a closed fruit-body, which does not open until the spores are ripe; saprophytes. Ithyphallus, Lycoperdon.
The Ustilagineæ (Smuts) are often regarded as Basidiomycetes of a low type, but it is more probable that they are allied to the Unicellular Chytridineæ. The Basidiomycetes are the highest members of the Fungoid alliance; their relations to the lower groups are obscure.
Basi´dium, the characteristic spore-producing organ of the Basidiomycetes. Typically, e.g. in the Toad-stools, it is a club-shaped structure, produced at its free end into four slender processes, the sterigmata, each of which bears a basidiospore at its tip. The young basidium contains two nuclei, which later fuse; the fusion-nucleus then undergoes two successive divisions, involving a reduction of chromosomes, and each of the four resultant nuclei passes through a sterigma into a basidiospore. These latter are thus seen to be carpospores, comparable to those of Red Algæ, and to the ascospores of Ascomycetes. The basidia of Uredineæ (Rusts) and of some other primitive Basidiomycetes are septate,
but otherwise agree with the type described above. See Basidiomycetes; Carpospore; Rusts.
Basil. See Basilius.
Bas´il, a labiate plant, Ocĭmum basilĭcum, a native of India, much used in cookery, especially in France, and known more particularly as sweet or common basil. Bush or lesser basil is O. minimum; wild basil belongs to a different genus, being the Calamintha Clinopodium.
Basil, St., called the Great, one of the Greek fathers, was born in 329, and made in 370 Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, where he died in 379. He was distinguished by his efforts for the regulation of clerical discipline, and, above all, his endeavours for the promotion of monastic life. The Greek Church honours him as one of its most illustrious saints, and celebrates his festival on 1st Jan. The vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty framed by St. Basil are essentially the rules of all the orders of Christendom, although he is particularly the father of the Eastern, as St. Benedict is the patriarch of the Western orders.
Basilan´, the principal island of the Sulu Archipelago, now belonging to the Philippines, off the S.W. extremity of Mindanao, from which it is separated by the Strait of Basilan. It is about 30 miles in length by 20 miles in breadth. Pop. about 8000.