Jehangir Fardunji Dastur 251 



thin-walled cells lightly coloured, while dark-coloured small cells, com- 

 pactly packed, form the medulla. Embedded in these nodules are 

 perithecia in one or more layers. 



In cultures the neck of the perithecium varies a great deal in length, 

 it may be almost absent or as long as that figured by Miss Stoneman. 

 Between these extremes there are all degrees of variation in the size of 

 the neck. There is the same variation in the hairiness of the neck. It may 

 be entirely smooth or it may have hairs sticking out from its sides in 

 varying quantities. These characters are not constant even on the same 

 medium and in the same cultures. 



The asci are hyaline, sessile and as a rule clavate. The asci (Fig. 5 c) 

 from the host generally measure between 45-0-66-0 x 7-7-11-0/x; but 

 on a fruit collected in November of 1918 the range of variation was 

 between 49'5-93-5 x 6-6-9-9;Lt. In the bigger asci the ascospores were 

 arranged in a single row, one below the other (Fig. 5 6). In cultures 

 there is the same range of variation in shape and size as that found 

 by Shear and Wood^ in the asci of Glomerella rufomaculans (Berk.) 

 Spauld. and v. Sch. (= Glomerella cingulata). The ascospores (Fig. 7) are 

 eight in number, hyaline, slightly curved, elliptical and generally sub- 

 distichous, they measure 12-0-19-0 x 4-4-6-6/x. They are quickly shed 

 after maturity; the ascus wall rapidly disintegrates and the spores ooze 

 out of the neck of the perithecium where they are held together in a drop 

 of a shining viscous liquid. The ascospores germinate in water by giving 

 out a germ-tube from near one of the ends ; they may, at times, become 

 septate; but they do not anastomose as do the conidia (Fig. 8). The germ- 

 tubes after growing for some distance form an appressorium at the tip. 



In old perithecia (from the host or from cultures) ascospores are 

 found to lie scattered or in groups of eight as in the ascus but without 

 the ascus wall which is invariably dissolved. They have, as a rule, 

 become septate, generally once rarely twice, and their wall has distinctly 

 turned pale brown. Ascospores that have germinated in the perithecium 

 have been at times observed to have anastomosed by their germ-tubes. 

 As already stated ascospores sown in water have not shown any of these 

 changes even when kept for any length of time. 



Miss Stoneman^ who referred the perfect forms of Gloeosporium and 

 Colletotrichum to a new genus, Gnom.oniopsis, is inclined to consider it as 



^ Shear, C. L. and Wood, A. K. Ascogenous Forms of Gloeosporium and Colletotrichum. 

 Bat. Gaz., xlttt, No. 4, p. 263, 1907. 



- Stoneman, B. A comparative Study of the Development of some Anthracnoses. Bot. 

 (iaz., XXVI, pp. 99-114, 1898. 



