174 THE CONIDIA OF FISTULINA. 



one sees that it contains an innumerable quantity of small, rounded* 

 ovoid bodies, more or less elongated. On examining them singly, 

 one sees that these small bodies are cells presenting a slightly 

 accentuated envelope, tinted with a brick or salmon colour like the 

 spores. It is difficult, by a casual glance, to recognise whether this 

 envelope is simple or double ; but, at the moment of germination, 

 it is very slightly denuded of its lining, and the external membrane 

 is broken and separated. The contents are composed of a rather 

 large oily clot and often of a smaller one, and of a transparent 

 liquid which separates them from the membranous envelope. 

 These cells are reproductive organs, so as to give birth to some 

 germinative filaments ; I have on account of this given them the 

 name of conidia, to which the only signification attributed by me is 

 that of secondary organs of reproduction, whatever may be the 

 rest of their form, structure, or evolution. The conidia of F. 

 hepatica have a rather variable form, which is always approaching 

 to an oval, more or less elongated, or to a truncate ovoid towards 

 the more naiTow extremity. Their dimensions is from "007 mm. 

 to '009 mm. at their greatest diameter, and from '004 mm. to 

 •006 mm. in the lesser breadth ; more frequently are "008 mm. 

 upon "004 mm. One finds also, but rarely, some conidia irre- 

 gular, claviform, baculoid, straight or curved, presenting from 

 •010 mm. up to .019 mm. of length. 



The resemblance of the conidia with their mother cells, and of 

 these with the cells of the receptacle, are easy to follow upon dried 

 specimens ; on studying them upon fresh specimens, of.small size, 

 young and not damaged, one may be easily convinced, at the first 

 sight, that these small organs have no power at all to penetrate - 

 from the outside into the interior of the tissue of the Fistvlina. The 

 anatomic study which follows — that of individuals exclusively 

 gemmiparous and that of the development of the receptacle which 

 we shall make further on — will leave, I am convinced, no doubt on 

 the mind of anyone. 



The conidia, such as I have described, are disposed upon long or 

 short cells, but narrow, fine, and with a granular protoplasm, 

 which divides into short branches, at the extremity at which is 

 found a conidium. The branches are often numerous, and thus 

 form some rather elegant bouquets of conidia ; at other times one 

 conidium only detaches itself upon the passage of a cell, and 

 appears almost sessile ; it has still at times a short pedicel. 

 Sometimes the conidiophore cells present some partitions at the 

 level of the divisions in fertile branches, sometimes they do not. 

 Sometimes the bouquet of conidia is elongated, and the conidiophore 

 cell giving birth to some conidia, alternated upon two rows, takes 

 the appearance of a rachis of grass. There have been noted a 

 crowd of varieties, but it is difficult to decide if these differences 

 of insertion of the conidia upon the conidiophore cell are, if I might 

 say, congenital, or whether some of them are the result of the suc- 

 cessive genesis of the conidia. The conidiophore cells belong to 



