4<*> DIVISION I. GENERAL MORPHOLOGY. 



species of Coprinus, ClavicepSj Mucor stolonifer, and Syncephalis, tliis power does 

 nol exist. 



Sporophorcs may be divided, according to their structure, into two groups : 

 simple or filamentous sporophores (Fruchthyphen, Fruchtfaden), consisting of a single 

 hypha or of a branch of a hypha, and compound sporop/wres (Fruchtkorper) in the sense 

 assigned to the expression ' compound ' in section I. 



1. Simple Sporophores. 



Section XL Simple sporophores are brandies of mycelial hyphae which 

 usually rise erect from them, and are themselves branched in a variety of modes 

 characteristic of the different species. When the hypha or its branch has grown to 

 a length which has a fixed average in each species, seldom, as for example in the 

 larger Mucorineae and Saprolegnieae, exceeding a few millimetres, the organs of 

 reproduction, spore-mother-cells, spores, are produced at their extremities in forms 

 which also vary in the different species and groups of species. With the formation 

 of these organs the growth of the sporophore ceases in most cases at once and for 

 ever, as for instance in the sporangiophores of Mucor and in the gonidiophores of 

 Peronospora (section XXXVII). 



In other cases, such as that of the successive abjunction of spores which will 

 be described in section XVI, the growth, that is the increase in size of the sporophore, 

 comes virtually to an end with the commencement of abjunction; but abjunction 

 may continue at the same spots for a considerable length of time if sufficient 

 nourishment is supplied. The gonidiophores of Penicillium, Eurotium, and Asper- 

 gillus are examples of this kind (see section XVI). 



In a third series of cases the first terminal formation of spores takes place at the 

 extremity of the sporophore after its apical growth has ceased, and when this 

 formation is completed a fresh growth in length of the sporophore begins at or close 

 beneath it, and is soon stopped by a new formation of spores similar to the first one; 

 and on one hypha or branch the same process may be again and again repeated. 



The second case is described, as was said above, in greater detail in section XVI. 

 The first and the third may be illustrated by some examples in the present place, 

 though their consideration will also be resumed in later sections. 



The thick tubular aseptate simple sporophores of the different species of Sapro- 

 legnia abjoint their extremity, which is club shaped and filled with protoplasm, by 

 a transverse septum to form a sporc-mothcr-cell (sporangium), in which numerous 

 spores an- formed by division of its protoplasm (section XVIII). The spores escape when 

 ripe by an opening at the apex of the sporangium, which elsewhere remains entire. 

 This is all that happens in weakly specimens, which therefore represent our first case. 

 In strong specimen-- on the other hand which have been duly fed, the transverse septum 

 beneath the empty sporangium becomes convex outwards and projects into the 

 sporangium, and assumes the character of a new tubular point, which grows on into 

 the empty sporangium and often through the opening at its apex into the 

 free space beyond, and finally transforms its terminal portion into a new sporangium. 

 This process may be repeated several times on the same sporangiophore, so that 

 several successive sporangia arc nested within one another. 



The allied genus Aehlya differs partly from Saprolcgnia in developing one or two 

 opposite lateral branches close beneath the empty sporangium, which themselves 



