264 



CLASS ASCOMYCETEAE 



Fig. 87. Sphaeriales, Family Fimetariaceae. Schizotheciujn anserinum (Rabenh.). 

 (A) Mature perithecium. (B) Longitudinal section of perithecium (paraphyses not 

 shown). (C) Ascus and paraphyses. (D) Ascospore showing functional dark cell and 

 empty hyaline cell, and gelatinous appendages. (E) Ascus with three normal asco- 

 spores and two smaller ones (only the functional cell shows). (F) Ascogonium with 

 trichogyne. (G) Portion of trichogyne with attached sperm cell. (H) Antherid with 

 emerging sperm. (I) Sperms clustered at tips of antherids. (A, C, D, after Griffiths: 

 Mem. Torrey Botan. Club, 11:1-134. B, E-I, after Ames: Mycologia, 26(5):392-414.) 



produced sperm cells, like those of Collema and Physcia in the Leca- 

 norales. In other forms minute sperm-like bodies (often called micro- 

 conidia) have been recorded but are not produced in definite spermogonia. 

 In a great many no such structures have been reported. 



Ames (1934) found that in Schizothecium anserinum (Rabenh.) 

 (Pleurage anserina (Rabenh.) Kuntze) small flask-shaped antherids are 

 formed out of whose necks the small sperm cells are successively pushed, 

 much as occurs in most of the Laboulbeniales. The ascogonia, produced 

 from the same mycelium, consist of coiled structures terminating in 

 slender trichogynes. When a suitable sperm comes into contact with a 



