234 FETCH : THE 1 I \(.l 



following day the upright branches of the remaining stromata 

 (which were identical with those photographed) forked dichoto- 

 mously into long rigid acute branches identical with those pre- 

 viously described. They fell over and adhered firmly to the 

 sides of the bell jar. and fused completely with one another 

 wherever they came in contact. After Fourteen days all were 

 devoured by caterpillars. 



No pot cultivation was made in this case, but combs from 

 the same nest left piled together under a box outside (and 

 therefore drier) bore only stromata with unexpanded stems 

 branched dichotomously at the apex. When, as in this ease 

 the supply of water gradually diminishes, the stromata are often 

 short and thick and only slightly branched at the apex, resem- 

 bling pieces of white coral. ' 



The spores germinate readily in water or in comb extract. 

 The resulting hyphae are easily distinguished from those de- 

 veloped from the " sphere" conidia : they are more irregular in 

 diameter and branch always at an acute angle, the branches 

 following the same general direction as the main hvpha. Only 

 in one case were conidia obtained directly from the creeping 

 mycelium in a film of comb extract agar <>n a cover glass, and 



in t his theeonidiophore was identical with that described below. 



When the conidia were sown on slants of comb extract agar, 



nitli or without dextrose, simple stromata developed at the 



<nd of eight days. They only came above the surface in oon- 



uith the glass. The largest projected above the agar for 



about f> millimetres, but the black stalk could be traced in 



the medium for a centimetre or more. The a-rial portion was 



lather loose, and the scattered, spreading conidiophores could 



easily be leen with a simple lens. The structure of the coni- 



diophore had undergone further variation. The basidia were 



• ill more widely separated, and now appeared as side branch- 



• in Brefeld's figure of i\\f oonidiophore ofPeswa (Scl<m- 



i ivberoaa (20) : they had lost the regular nask shape, and 



were practically of uniform diameter with ;i somewhat trun- 



te apex and often irregularly bent (fig. '.YD. 



