— 251 — 



stances observed one or two conidia adhering to one of the ends of the 

 spore — and often observed colonies of conidia around an ascus-spore. 

 When observing the spores themselves they also gave the impression of 

 having germinated, partly by their poor contents, partly by the latter 

 appearing decidedly two-partited. 



In his work Untersuchungen aus dem Gesammtgebiete der Mykologie, 

 Heft X, pg. 321 (tab. 12) Brefeld mentions his sporecultures of 

 Helotium- and Phialea-spec'ies. The result was respecting all the spe- 

 cies examined negative (i. e. the spores only gave sterile mycelium), 

 only with the exception of the Helotium herbarum here mentioned; be- 

 cause while the latters spores in water only gave a poor, sterile mycelium, 

 a fructificative germination from each end of the spore occurred in culture- 

 fluidum. These conidia formed further yeast-like colonies and continued 

 germinating, until the nourishment was used up, and a dirty-white sedi- 

 ment was formed in the culture-drop. As far as we know, this sup- 

 plementary fruit-formation is here for the first time found in nature. The 

 conidia found by us are quite of the same appearance as those cultivated 

 by Brefeld 1 ), not even the small drops in the ends of the conidia are 

 lacking. Although the pretty germination - figures, given by Brefeld, 

 could not be observed, preliminary stages have been noted — and the 

 dust-layer on the discus of the fungus is surely just a "sediment" in the 

 "culture-drop" covering the little ascophore, in which the conidia must 

 be supposed to have been formed. 



Fenestrella fenestrata Berk, et Br. 



We have had occasion to observe an interesting variability in size 

 of ascus-spores of this fungus, collected upon Alnus glutinosa at Lyngby 

 lake, Sjaelland. We found here in the same stroma one single perithe- 

 cium with spores 62 — 76 pt long, while the rest contained (ripe) spores 

 37 — 50 fi long. In these perithecia were besides found some spores, 

 the length of which was intermediate. Here is thus lacking the stability 

 in size, otherwise characteristic for ascus-spores. Strange enough it is 

 not so here, that the large spores are found in 4-spored, the small ones 

 in 8-spored asci, as it otherwise generally occurs among the species, 

 where both 4- and 8-spored asci are to be found. 



The fact observed illustrates Brefeld s statement (Untersuchungen 

 a. d. G. d. Myk., Heft IX, pg. 72 in a note), that the claim for constancy 

 in the size of ascus-spores can not be upheld respecting pluriseptate 

 spores. — It will be of importance by systematic studies in species of 

 Fenestrella (and other dictyospore forms) to pay due attention to this. 



• 



l ) The conidia found by us were however on an average somewhat larger. 



