260 Report of the Department of Botany of the 



at their tips long, slender, curved bodies which the writer in his former 

 bulletin called paraphyses. This name was used simply because 

 other writers have referred to similar bodies in other species of 

 Fusicoccum as paraphyses. Shear (1911) has chosen to call them 

 scolecospores. In the writer's opinion this is a much better name. 

 The name paraphysis might well be confined to designating the 

 structures occurring between the asci in ascomycetes. 



No one seems thus far to have been able to germinate the sco- 

 lecospores. Whether they should be regarded as a spore form which 

 has ceased to function or whether they are really sterile bodies which 

 serve to separate the somewhat sticky spores may be considered an 

 open question. The scolecospores are always curved towards the 

 ostiolum of the pycnidium and may be found frequently in the 

 pycnidium after all the spores have been discharged. For the most 

 part, however, they seem to ooze from the pycnidium with the 

 pycnospores. 



Exudation of spores. — The pycnidium is mature shortly after the 

 bursting of the buds in the spring. If an infected cane or arm 

 is placed in water the pycnidia above the water line will, in the 

 course of a few hours, become prominent on account of the presence 

 of a reddish-yellow ball or 'long curl of exuded pycnospores. The 

 pycnospores are usually accompanied by a quantity of the scoleco- 

 spores. If moisture is supplied from the outside as in the case of 

 falling rain the exudation occurs in a similar manner. The actual 

 number of spores that is formed is enormous. A single curl often 

 consists of several thousand spores. When moisture is supplied 

 to the mature pycnidium from below, the spores exude and cling at 

 the mouth of the pycnidium, often drying down there and becoming 

 nearly coriaceous. A drop of water lodging on the spore-stream, 

 however, quickly sets the individual spores free and they float rap- 

 idly away. 



No further explanation of the discharge of the spores from the 

 pycnidium than that offered in the former bulletin can be given. .It 

 would seem that the spores must be surrounded by a mucilaginous 

 substance which expands greatly in the presence of water. Pre- 

 sumably the same substance is active in effecting the rapid movement 

 of individual spores when placed in a drop of water. At any rate 

 they move about much as though a drop of alcohol had been drawn 



