244 



DIVISION II. COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 





The small rod-like cells which sprout from the cells of the spores of Nectria inaurata 

 and N. Lamyi l while still inside the ascus, filling it quite full and giving rise to strange 

 misunderstandings, may also be mentioned in this place, though it is not very probable 

 that they are of the same significance. The point of agreement between all these 

 forms lies in their outward resemblance and in the absence of any certain knowledge 

 as to their morphological and physiological value. 



SECTION LXXI. 4. Gonidia. The course of development in the few forms 

 mentioned above on page 238, r, is shown with certainty by our observations up to 

 the present time to be that which is there termed simple ; and almost all Lichen-fungi 

 also are without gonidia unless we count among them the soredia, which will be 

 described in section CXVII, as there is certainly good reason for doing ; other gonidial 

 formations are described in a few species only, as ex- 

 ceptional cases therefore, and in these are not beyond 

 doubt. 



The course of development in the larger part of the 

 Ascomycetes with which we are acquainted, and especially 

 in the Pyrenomycetes, is pleomorphous with copious pro- 

 duction of gonidia of more than one form. All the gonidia 

 are unicellular or pluricellular compound spores formed 

 by acrogenous or intercalary abjunction, as in the ex- 

 amples which have just been described. Anatomical 

 investigation and observation of different portions of the 

 development show that they usually appear as precursors 

 of the ascocarps, whether their development comes to an 

 end when the formation or at least the completion of these 



nicroscopic slide in .. . i .1 / . i r ii_ 



i under water after begins, or they make their first appearance before the 

 latter but continue to develope simultaneously with them. 



branch of the mycelium, the .-,. . 1*11 111 i -t i 11 



. n shown plainly on the middle Claviceps, which has already been described, is an excellent 



one. * group of five sterigmata before , ,. < - r ... . -.1 r 11 



aii the spermatia are shed, c view in example of the first case, for gonidia and penthecia follow 



profile of a stout dense tuft of sterigmata . , . ,, . . i r 



springing from more than one myceiiai one another in that genus in successive periods of vege- 



filament, the apex of which is formed of , . n-*i j i * / r o .. J 



a mass (mereiV outlined) of spermatia tation. The development of species of Stigmatea accord- 



abscised and imbedded in jelly. Magn. . n- i o i i i i r ^t 11 Tk 



37S times. ing to Tulasne 2 , and probably of some other small Pyre- 



nomycetes that live in leaves, follows a similar course, but 



without forming sclerotia ; and this is the case also with Epichloe, which was described 

 in a former page, and with Tulasne's Xylarieae (Xylaria, Poronia, Ustulina, Hypoxylon) 

 and some species of Nectria, especially N. cinnabarina ( = Tubercularia vulgaris, P.), 

 which all behave in a similar manner to Epichloe. The compound sporophores 

 of these forms are at first covered by a hymenium which produces gonidia, but this 

 ceases to grow and is cast off as soon as the development of the perithecia formed 

 within its plane of insertion begins to advance. 



A second case is exemplified in the Erysipheae mentioned above, in Fumago 

 salicina 8 , Cucurbitaria macrospora (Fig. 1 1 7), Pleospora polytrichum, P. Clavariarum 4 , 



FIG. 116. PezitaFuckeliana. Frc 

 specimen grown on a microscopic slide in 

 grape juice exa 

 being treated with alcohol i 

 sterigmata forming 'spermatia' at the 

 top of a branch of the mycelium, the 



1 See Jaiiowitsch in Bot. Ztg. 1865, p. 149. 

 8 Tulasne, Carpol. II. 



Carpol. II. 

 Tulasne, Carpol. II. 



