180 BEY. R. ABBAY ON HEMTLEIA YASTATItlX. 



Germination of the Spores. — The ordinary spores of the red 

 sp orange at times germinate readily ; at others, although appa- 

 rently quite fresh and healthy, not one of them will grow. Out 

 of several packages of diseased leaves sent from Ceylon during 

 1877, not a spore would germinate, the reason for which I could 

 never determine. Again, the spores from some of the spots on a 

 diseased leaf will germinate, whilst from others they refuse. 

 Whether this is due to conditions of growth or to the conditions 

 to which they have been subjected after reaching maturity, I am 

 unable to say ; but I incline to the former view. Of the whole 

 number of spores which I have tried to grow, only a very small 



* 



fraction have ever shown signs of vitality. 



If the sporange be placed in water or Pasteur's solution and 

 kept at a permanent temperature of 90° P., the spores, if fertile, 

 will begin to germinate in from forty to eighty hours after im- 

 mersion, those which had been kept for sixteen months taking 

 the longer period before mycelium appeared. Sometimes the ger- 

 mination takes place whilst the spores still remain within and 

 attached to the sporange, as in fig. 9 (PL XIV.). At other times 

 the spores escape and germinate in the neighbourhood of the spo- 

 range, fig. 10, PL XIV. The germination of the spore causes a bul- 

 ging out of the membrane at one or two points; when there are two, 

 they are generally directly opposite to each other. A portion of the 

 contents of the spore enters this sac-like body, and a septum more 

 or less distinct is immediately formed. The same process is repeated 

 by the new cell, and a chain of cells is soon formed. During the 

 process of germination the contents of the spore at times become 

 almost transparent, or at least finely granular, and the nucleus 

 and nucleoli appear to have been absorbed. Soon after germina- 

 tion the spore partially shrivels up, and its contents become more 

 or less indistinct. Plate XIV. figs. 12 and 13 show some of the 

 perfectly mature and dried spores in process of germination. 



* • 



Towards its extremities the mycelium assumes a more continuous 

 form, and the septa are often scarcely discernible (PL XI v. 

 fig. 14). The form of the cells varies very considerably : most 

 frequently they are globose, obovate, or barrel-shaped ; at other 

 times they swell into irregularly shaped sacs, which become filled 

 with granular protoplasm, with not infrequently one or more trans- 

 parent globose bodies in them (PL XIV. fig. 15). At times the 

 protoplasm within the cells remains almost perfectly transparent ; 

 but most frequently it assumes a distinctly granular character, 



