4 Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, Bd. 2. Nr. 1. 



supposition mainly by studying the manner of spore germination. 

 He has namely found in both genera that the spores are germi- 

 nating into short flash-shaped sterigmata on the top of which 

 are formed basipetal chains of conidia, a fact stated for Schroeteria 

 long ago, but until then not observed in Entorrhiza. This manner 

 of germination into »Acrostalagmus-likec conidia, which was ob- 

 served by Brefeld in the species Entorrhiza Aschersoniana (Magn.) 

 De Toni, E. cypericola (Magn.) De Toni, Schroeteria Delastrina 

 (Tul.) Wint. and S. parvispora Bref. might point, undeniably, 

 towards a relationship to the Ascomycetes, but Brefeld seems 

 not to take in consideration nor at least to lay stress upon the 

 fact that previous investigators have observed that the spores 

 of the genera in question can germinate in an ustilaginoid man- 

 ner. Thus Winter (1. c. p. 147) has found that Schroeteria Dela- 

 strina may germinate into a Tilletia-like promycelium, and Weber 

 states 1. c. that the germination of Entorrhiza Aschersoniana is 

 going on in that way that the spore sends out several hypha-like 

 promycelia which again produce falcate sporidia, as well laterally 

 as apically, thus putting in mind the germination of a Proustilago. 

 These facts point clearly towards a relationship to the Ustilagineae, 

 and so it may be reasonable to believe that the germination into 

 »Acrostalagmus-like« conidia is a phenomenon of secondary impor- 

 tance. 



In fact, the morphological likeness between the genera En- 

 torrhiza and Schroeteria and, on the other side, the conidial stage 

 of Ustilaginoidea, is not very great: The greenish Sepedonium- 

 like chlamydospores of the last fungus are formed on the surface 

 of a solid central pseudoparenchyma, which in some cases can 

 appear as a real Sclerotium, a circumstance, which in con- 

 nection with the occurrence of the fungus in the ovaries of grasses, 

 puts in mind a Claviceps-like organism — while on the other 

 hand Schroeteria and Entorrhiza, owing to their perishable hyphae 

 and the formation of entirely dust-like spore-masses, resemble 

 the true Ustilagineae. 



As to the genus Entorrhiza the spore-formation in E. digitata, 

 described above, furthermore seems to be like that of the Usti- 

 lagineae in several respects. In this group cell-fusions by deliques- 

 cence of the membranes are commonly occurring during the spore 

 formation, and recently F. Rawitscher has shown that the young 

 binucleate spore cell in Ustilago Maydis results from the dissolving 

 of a wall between two uninucleate neighbour-cells. Further the 

 intricately entangled hyphal complexes, wherefrom the sporogene 



