[mod.L., f. Gr. βάσις, base + -ιδιον dim. ending.] Name given to the cells of the fructification in some fungi, which form the ‘gills,’ and bear the spores.
1858. Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 778. The spores are arranged on this hymenium in clusters of four, each group being attached to the points of a small body, rounded below, which is called the basidium.
1861. H. Macmillan, Footn. Page Nat., 214. Each of the gills … is found to consist of a number of elongated cells called basidia.
