l'Ki( il : THE unci 



He BayB that the erect branches of the creeping mycelium 



end in swollen cells which may be 16-32 ft thick, and that 



and there are found small croups of hyphae inclined to 



one another, with the same swollen tips, but that they do not 



occur in all nests. In these he sees a resemblance to the 



Kohlrabi heads " of MSller. 



1 have not found anything of this description on fresh combs. 

 If they are kept for a few days under a bell glass, such struc- 

 tures do arise as will be described later, but they do not occur on 

 the comb in situ. Another possible explanation, remembering 

 that Holtermann was guided to the combs by the agaric, is 

 that these collections of hypha? were aborted agarics. These 

 nearly always occur on combs producing agarics and would to 

 some extent answer the description given ; they are not 

 otherwise referred to by Holtermann. 



I am also unable to confirm Holtermann's description of the 

 sphere. He recognizes the branching at the top of the stalk. 

 but says " the outer cells have a less active growth than the 

 inner, and after a short time become completely passive : 

 they constitute thereby a cover which later appears as a kind 

 ■ if peridium. The limits of this cover are exactly indicated 

 by the drying of the outer cells. There begins in the interior 

 an active development of conidia, in which the mycelium 

 divides into short oval cells. The destruction of the hyphae 

 Imost complete, and it needs only a slight pressure on 

 the cover glass to split the dried peridium and liberate the 

 thousands of conidia." 



I have not been able to find or develop spheres with the 

 peridium described, or any in which the conidia were free. 

 The Sphere consists of branches radiating from a common 

 stalk, some of which produce spherical conidia. and others oval 

 COnidia. In alcohol material there is sometimes a brown 



oua deposit (derived from the oomb) overlying parts 

 of the sphere, but i ere is no sign of drying in the nest 



l' i- remarkable that one never finds on the oomb a free 

 conidium or ;t Btalk from which tin nidia have fallen. This 



