British Funn. 



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branclieSj alike in size and structure^ called archicarp.'^, 

 which are at first short and resemble ordinary hyphal 

 branches^ approach each other until their tips touch. 

 The archicarps continue to increase in size for some 

 time, and become clavate, or club-shaped, and densely 

 filled with protoplasm. At this stage a portion of the 

 thick tip of each archicarp is cut off from the 

 remainder by the formation of a transverse septum. 

 The basal cell of the archicarp is called the suspensor, 

 and the thicker apical cell the gamete. The two 

 gametes are at first separated by their respective cell- 

 walls, but these soon dissolve, allowing the protoplasm 

 of the two to mingle, and a single cell or zygospore 

 results, which grows for some time at the expense 

 of the protoplasm originally contained in the two 

 suspensors. The zygospore soon becomes clothed 

 with a thick cell-wall, which is usually brown and 

 warted or spiny when mature. Zygospores are 

 formed amongst the mass of vegetative hyphas, and 

 are not so conspicuous as the gonidial form of repro- 

 duction, and unless specially sought after are likely 

 to be overlooked. Depending on the species the two 

 archicarps may originate from two branches springing 

 from the same hypha or from two approximate 

 hyphae not in close morphological union. 



De Bary states that in RMzojnis nigricans the two 

 gametes and suspensors differ in size and other 

 particulars. In Syncephalis nodosa the two archi- 

 carps coil round each other. In several species 

 belonging to the Mncorini it sometimes happens that 

 the two gametes, which under normal conditions 

 coalesce to form a zygospore, remain distinct, or in 



