58 



PLECTOMYCETES 



[CH. 



Only two species of Eremascus are known. E. albus was discovered by 

 Eidam in 1881, in a bottle of malt extract. The contents had gone bad and 



their surface was covered with a 

 growth of various fungi, amongst 

 which was the new genus. It pro- 

 duced a fine, snowy white, septate 

 mycelium from which pairs of fer- 

 tile hyphae grew out, curled round 

 one another and fused at their tips 

 (fig. 1 8). The fused portion was 

 cut off from the fertile hypha below, 

 and eventually produced eight 

 spores. Unfortunately Eidam's 

 species was lost and has never 

 reappeared. 



In 1907, however, Stoppel, on 

 opening some pots of apple and 

 gooseberry jelly, discovered a very 

 similar form which she named Ere- 

 mascus fertilis. This species, like 

 E. albus, possesses a branching, 

 septate mycelium. The cells at 

 first contain several nuclei; these, 

 according to Stoppel, are arranged 

 in pairs, but Guilliermond, in a 

 subsequent investigation, found 

 that such an arrangement, even 

 when present in the young mycelium, did not persist. It is no doubt 

 dependent upon rapidity of growth. 



From this mycelium pairs of uninucleate branches grow up, usually from 

 the same, sometimes from different hyphae, and fuse at their apices (fig. 19). 

 Their nuclei also fuse and after three karyokinetic divisions eight spores are 

 formed. Sometimes, especially in old cultures, the fertile hyphae may 

 produce asci without fusion. These are usually small and generally contain 

 four spores or even a lesser number. As a rule three nuclear divisions take 

 place in the parthenogenetic asci, and eight nuclei are formed, though they 

 do not all function. According to Guilliermond it would seem that the 

 number of spores is conditioned not by any cytological peculiarity, but 

 rather by the supply of nutritive material. 



The species of the genus Endomyces possess a branched, septate myce- 

 lium. It may break up into oidia, which sometimes become surrounded by 

 thick walls and form cysts, or it may produce yeast-like conidia which 



Fig. 18. Eremasais albus Eidam; a. b. c. d. sexual 

 apparatus; e. /. %. h. fusion of gametangia ; *'. / 

 !;. development of asci; /. parthenogenetic ascus; 

 x 900-1000; aft '■• Eidam. 



