9 6 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



18 B. 



W ' ■' ''^ :: , 



cells and parts of mycelia often become empty of protoplasm and 

 stated that, through careful one-sided removal of water from a 

 living mycelium of Eurotium herbariorum, he had succeeded in 

 setting the cell-contents in slow motion, as a result of which he 

 had been able directly to observe the passage of granular proto- 

 plasm out of one cell into another. 



In 1896, in Part I of his great monograph on the Laboulbeniales, 

 Thaxter x stated that in these fungi : " The protoplasm of adjacent 



cells, the origin of which 



is the same, is connected 



by a conspicuous strand of 



**%•,, J? wSk the same substance, which 



passes from one cell to 

 the other through a well- 

 marked perforation of the 

 cell wall, the connection 

 being demonstrated with 

 great ease by potash and 

 subsequent staining " ; 

 and he illustrated the pits 

 and the supposed simple 

 protoplasmic strands very 

 beautifully. In 1912, 

 Faull 2 attempted to 

 verify Thaxter's observations by means of investigations on 

 Laboulbenia chaetophora. With gross material treated with potash 

 he obtained results like those of Thaxter ; but, when he came to 

 examine microtome sections prepared in the usual manner, he 

 found that the pits, as a rule, have a closing membrane. Of this 

 membrane, which apparently Thaxter had overlooked, Faull says 

 that, in favourable preparations, it " can be seen to be perforated 

 by a very fine pore and, in some instances, there is the appear- 

 ance of several minute perforations." 



1 R. Thaxter, " Contributions toward a Monograph of the Laboulbeniaceae ; 

 Part I," Mem. Americ. Acad, of Arts and Sci., Vol. XII, 1896, p. 236, Plate II, Figs. 

 16-18, and Plate III, Figs. 11-12. 



2 J. H. Faull, " The Cytology of Laboulbenia chaetophora and L. Gyrinidarum," 

 Annals of Botany, Vol. XXVI, 1912, pp. 330-333. 



Fig. 



52. — Septal pores and protoplasmic con- 

 nexions. No. 15, Coprinus atramentarius ; 

 a hypha from the stipe. No. 16, A and B, 

 two clamp-connexions from a mycelium, 

 presumably of Merulius lacrymans. Treated 

 with chlor-zinc iodine. After Wahrlich. 

 Magnification, 1800. 



