n8 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



protoplasm and whither does it go ? This question is easily 

 answered. One has only to examine the mycelium as a whole, pro- 

 ceeding backwards and then forwards from such cells as those 



shown at B in Fig. 63 

 which were in the 

 centre of the hanging 

 drop of dung-agar. 

 One finds that the 

 protoplasm passing 

 into the main stream 

 is coming from numer- 

 ous hyphae which 

 have ceased to grow 

 in length and are be- 

 coming more and more 

 highly vacuolated. 

 One of these hyphae 

 is shown at A in Fig. 

 63. The outflow of 

 protoplasm from any 

 individual hypha 

 takes place very 

 slowly, but can be 

 detected two or three 

 cells back from the 

 growing point as it 

 passes beyond a sep- 

 tum. The proto- 

 plasmic streams of 

 ultimate hyphae com- 

 bine together, like the 

 streams in the upper reaches of a river, with the result that 

 the main stream is produced. Since the hyphae conducting the 

 main stream of protoplasm are of about the same diameter as 

 the hyphae conducting the tributary streams, it naturally follows 

 that the main stream must flow faster than the tributary streams. 

 Thus, at B in Fig. 63, the main stream passing through the 



Fig. 64. — Pyronema confluens. Diagram of part of a 

 mycelial hypha, drawn in perspective, to show 

 protoplasm streaming from one cell to the next 

 through the central pore of the septum. The 

 main mass of the protoplasm is very granular 

 and is so represented. The clear spaces are large 

 vacuoles filled with cell-sap. There is an afferent 

 cone of protoplasm flowing toward the pore, of 

 which the direction of flow is indicated by two 

 arrows, and there is a more obtuse efferent cone 

 of protoplasm flowing away from the pore. The 

 protoplasmic walls of the vacuoles are free from 

 granules and are not moving. Attached to these 

 walls in temporarily fixed positions are some 

 tiny, oval, highly refractive bodies, three on the 

 surface of the septum and one other to the left of the 

 afferent cone of protoplasm. Magnification, 3240. 



