1 91 9] DRECHSLER—ACTINOMYCES 77 



processes, the spiral becomes relaxed, and the chain of spores 

 subject to disruption. The branch now passes through the same 

 course of development as the axial filament and in turn gives rise 

 to a sporogenous branch below a septum a little above its own 

 insertion. The number of sporogenous branches developed below 

 a single septum is generally increased to several by proliferations 

 subsequent to the first; and as the initiation and development of 

 successive orders may be indefinitely repeated, complex fructifica- 

 tions are frequently developed, in which a succession of the processes 

 described are simultaneously taking place at many points. 



In the second type there is no such clearly defined relation 

 between younger and more mature sporogenous h^^phae. Develop- 

 ment of a fructification is initiated by the proliferation of branches 

 at irregular intervals on the distal portion of a prostrate axial 

 filament which often exceeds i mm. in length. The branches may 

 either stop their more extensive development after forming a spiral, 

 or themselves proliferate a secondary branch a short distance above 

 their own insertion; and this in turn may form a spiral and give 

 rise to a tertiary branch (fig. 43). By a repetition of this process 

 each lateral element may become branched several times, the 

 whole apparatus as well as its insertion' on the axial filament being 

 characterized by an absence of septa. Sporulation, instead 

 of beginning in any individual spiral as soon as it is formed, is 

 usually delayed until the branching and growth of spiral hyphae in 

 the same lateral process have come to an end (figs. 42-44, 46), when 

 it will often proceed rapidly and almost simultaneously in all the 

 spirals (fig. 41). The termination of the axial filament itself 

 develops into a spiral, and behaves essentially like a primary lateral 

 branch. 



Occasionally the axis of one of these racemose arrangements 

 may be comparatively short, resulting in a rather intricate structure 

 in which the spirals of one lateral branch may be entangled with 

 those of another (fig. 44). The tendencies characteristic of the 

 type, however, are maintained : the absence of a septum above the 

 insertion of branches, and the delay in sporulation in the spirals 

 first formed, until the growth of the last order of sporogenous 

 branches is more or less complete. 



