117 



ON SAPROLEGXIiE. 



By Dr. Anton de Bary.* 



The existence of a sexual generation in a certain number of 

 Fungi has latterly been demonstrated. The Mucorini offer an 

 example of a copulation which, in my idea, and that of M. Hof- 

 meister, is a particular form of this mode of generation ; and, 

 since Micheli and Bulliard a multitude of Fungi are, at any rate, 

 Bupposed to possess sexes, flowers, anthers, &c. 



We will first quote the Saprolegnia?, the sexual organs, and the 

 fecundation of which were first discovered by M. Pringsheim, 

 and described by him.f In the types which may be imagined to 

 be monoecious, such as the Saprolegnia monoica, the Pythium and 

 our Aphano?nyces, the female organs consist of oogonia, that is to 

 say, of cells which are at first globose, and rich in plastic matters, 

 which most generally terminate short branches of the mycelium, 

 and which are but rarely seen in an interstitial position. The con- 

 stitutive membrane of the adult oogonium in Saprolegnia monoica 

 is reabsorbed in a great number of points, and is there pierced 

 with rounded holes. At the same time the plasma is divided into 

 a larger or smaller number of distinct portions which are rounded 

 into little spheres, and separate from the walls of the conceptacle, 

 in order to group themselves in its centre, where they float in an 

 aqueous liquid. These gonospheres are then smooth and bare ; on 

 their surface there exists no membrane of the nature of cellulose. 

 In the genera Pythium and Aphanomyces, and in some of the 

 Saprolegnia all the plasma of the oogonia is condensed into one 

 solitary central sphere, surrounded by liquid. 



During the formation of the oogonium, there arise from its 

 pedicel, or from neighbouring filaments, slight, cylindrical, curved 

 branches, sometimes twisted around the support of the oogonium, 

 and which all tend towards this organ. Their superior extremity 

 is intimately applied to its wall, then ceases to be elongated, 

 becomes slightly inflated, and is limited below by a septum ; it is 

 then an oblong cell, slightly curved, filled with protoplasm, and 

 intimately applied to the oogonium ; in one word, an antheridium, 

 or the organ of the male sex. Each oogonium possesses one or 

 several antheridia. Towards the time when the gonospheres are 

 formed, it may be remarked that each antheridium sends to the 

 interior of the oogonium one or several tubular processes which 

 have crossed its side wall, and which open at their extremity in 

 order to discharge their contents. These, while they are flowing 

 out, exhibit some very agile corpuscles, the diameter of which is 

 barely equal to -002 m.m., and which, considering their resemblance 

 to what are termed " spermatozoids" in the Vaucherice, ought to 



# Translated from " Morphologie und Physiologie der Pilze," in Hofmeister's 

 " Handbuch," vol. ii., cap. v., p. 155. By the Editor. 

 t Pringsheim's " Jahrbucher," vol. i., p. 284, vol. ii., p. 205. 



