176 THE SAPROLEGNIACEAE 



of the smaller opening they become oblong, only to become short-pip- 

 shaped again as they swim away with two apical cilia. This first swim- 

 ming is very deliberate and apparently quite aimless and continues 

 for only a few minutes. After encysting the spores emerge after a time 

 and swim again with a clear spot on one side as usual. In this stage 

 the swimming is much more regular, the spores going straight forward 

 at a very steady gait. On encysting again the spores may sprout. 

 On a bit of corn meal in sterilized well water young threads produced oval sporangia 



about the same size as those on termites and pear-shaped ones about 35 X 60^1.. 



These sporangia on agar produced long papillae, 6-7 X 50-400(1, but the spores 



while formed rarely escaped. 

 A culture on a piece of boiled corn grain in sterilized well water produced oogonia in gieat 



abundance. 



S.\PROAIYCES Fritsch, 1893, p. 420. 



Plant arising as a single, slender basal cell attached by rhizoids and 

 branching at the tip into two or more similar segments which are con- 

 stricted at the point of origin and which rebranch again one or more 

 times in the same way. Sporangia single or in groups, apical or lateral from 

 the continuation of the threads, elongated clavate to nearly cylindrical, 

 the monoplanetic spores escaping by an apical papilla. Oogonia in some 

 forms (or at some seasons?) absent, when present single or in whorls at 

 the nodes, pyriform, often encrusted. Egg single. Antheridia borne on 

 long or short branches which are often twisted, androgynous or diclinous, 

 applied to the tip of the oogonia and sending a tube to the egg. Three 

 species are known as mentioned above under the family, also a sterile 

 plant which is thought by Thaxter to be a form of 5. Reinschii. This 

 sterile form was found by Mr. Couch near Wilmington and the descriptive 

 notes were made from his observations. 



Sapromyces Reinschii (Schroet.) Fritsch. Osterr. bot. Zeitschr. 48:420. 

 1893. 



Plate 60 



Hyphae divided into segments of unequal length by incomplete 

 constrictions, the connection between the segments being closed by a 

 cellulin plug; branched repeatedly, the new branches often arising in 

 whorls, not rarely dichotomously branched; 5-1 piJ^ thick, most about 

 lOtA. Sporangia apical or rarely lateral, single or in clusters of as many 

 as six, very variable in shape and size, sub-cylindrical to oval, usually 

 elongate-elliptical; 14-28 x 30-140;!, most about 25 x i25!j.. Spores usually 

 completely formed in the sporangium before emerging, and then emerging 

 separately with the ciliated end directed backward (not rarely the entire 

 contents of the sporangium discharged as a naked mass before the spore 



