290 RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



they come into contact with the substratum. From the slime-disc 

 hyphae grow radially outwards and in four days may surround it 

 with a hyphal ring 6-8 mm. wide. Fischer tried to determine the 

 origin of the radiating mycelium but failed on account of the presence 

 of the thick slime in the gleba's interior. Pillay was more fortunate ; 

 for, with the help of microtome sections, he discovered that the 

 hyphae spring not from the spores but from the gemmae. 1 He also 

 observed that in a glebal mass three days old the spores are intact 

 but ungerminated, and that in a glebal mass five to six days old the 

 spores are breaking down, very few being still present. Fischer 

 had also noticed this degeneration of the spores. Pillay thought 

 he saw germinating spores in a glebal mass twice, but could not be 

 sure ; and he states that, in a glebal mass placed in water, while it 

 is certain that almost all of the gemmae germinate it is equally 

 certain that almost all of the spores degenerate. 2 



From the observations just described it is clear that the germina- 

 tion of a glebal mass as a whole is in reality due to the germination 

 of some thousands of gemmae in the gleba's interior. When a moist 

 glebal mass is opened and its contents are examined, one can often 

 find among the ungerminated spores some gemmae which have 

 already produced short germ-tubes, each gemma with its germ-tube 

 consisting of 2-3 cells and each septum being provided with a clamp- 

 connexion (Fig. 156, p. 311). Such germinated gemmae were illus- 

 trated by Fischer. 3 As one would expect, when a glebal mass as a 

 whole germinates and the germ-tubes of the gemmae push their 

 way out through the glebal envelope to the exterior, the germ-tubes 

 in developing into the radiating mycelium continue to produce 

 clamp-connexions. Pillay 4 found that the cells of the radiating 

 hyphae contain typical pairs of nuclei. It is therefore certain that 

 the mycelium produced by a germinating glebal mass is sexually 

 diploid. 



A glebal mass may retain its vitality for a very long time. 

 Miss Walker 5 extracted from some conical pure-culture flasks some 

 glebal masses which had been shot against the glass walls seven 



1 T. P. Pillay, loc. cit., p. 214. 2 Ibid., pp. 214-215. 



3 E. Fischer, in Die nat. Pflanzenfamilien, loc. cit., p. 345, Fig. 182, G. 



4 T. P. Pillay, loc. cit., p. 214. 5 L. B. Walker, loc. cit., p. 173. 



