EUASCOMYCETES 



171 



most Gymnoascaceae, it is found on decaying feathers and dung. The 

 cells are multinucleate. As in Gymnoascus setosus and Ctenomyces 

 serratus, they abjoint lateral or terminal, hyaline, oval, multinucleate 

 conidia. The formation of the perithecium takes place as in the Gymnoas- 

 caceae. The copulation branches arise from neighboring cells of the 

 same hyphae or two separate hyphae. From the first, they are multi- 

 nucleate and subsequently undergo several nuclear divisions. The 

 ascogonium is slender and lies as a helix around the spherical antheridium 

 (Fig. 106, 1). Fertilization is absent; the male nuclei degenerate; the 

 ascogonium develops parthenogenetically. As in Ctenomyces serratus, 



Fig. 106. — Aphanoascus cinnabarinus. 1. Small ascogonium coils about spherical 

 antheridium. 2. Ascogenous hyphae coil about antheridium whose contents are degener- 

 ating. 3. Section of periphery of an immature perithecium. The cells of the ascogenous 

 hyphae are about to develop laterally to asci. 4. Mature fructification. (1 to 3 X 600; 

 4 X 10; after Dangeard, 1907.) 



it divides into binucleate cells; some of these grow to ascogenous hyphae 

 which coil helically and form lateral secondary branches which again coil 

 helically. The whole system is abjointed into binucleate cells which 

 apparently form the asci as lateral outgrowths (Fig. 106, 3). Meanwhile 

 the knot is closely surrounded by sheath hyphae intertwining at the 

 periphery into a pseudoparenchymatous wall of several layers. The 

 perithecia are up to 2 mm. in diameter, hyaline at first, becoming yellow- 

 ish brown and finally cinnabar red (Dangeard, 1907). 



In Aphanoascus the peripheral layers of the rind form a definite 

 pseudoparenchymatous peridium, while in the Gymnoascaceae they form 

 a plectenchymatous tissue; Aphanoascus, thus, has been considered by 



