227 
means a new view since all physiologists who have directed their attention to the 
development of the cups or the hymenium in Peziza or Ascobolus represent the asci 
as a subsequent and consecutive growth from the subhymenial tissue upwards 
amongst the skeleton threads of the disc structure.* 
Linear paraphyses are the simplest form. They consist of a slender cylin- 
drical cell of equal thickness throughout. This form prevails almost entirely in 
Mollixa, and very largely in Dasyscypha. Amongst the larger Pezizw of the 
section Aleuwria they are comparatively rare. In Hysteriacei this form of 
paraphysis is not uncommon, and amongst the Syheriacei it seems to be the most 
common form. Sometimes they but little exceed the asci in length and then 
remain perfectly straight, but when considerably exceeding the asci the. tips are 
often more or less curved as soon as they are set free so that the retractile tendency 
can exhibit itself. Such paraphyses are usually colourless and without contents. 
At times a row of nuclei exhibit themselves or the threads become septate. Septa- 
tion may be perfect, as when a diaphragm connects the opposite walls or the 
eudochrome is divided. The latter condition is very difficult indeed to distinguish 
in the slender linear Paraphyses, but is not uncommon and may be well studied 
in some of the larger species with clavate paraphyces. 
Clavate paraphyses are those which expand in their upper portion into a more 
or less clavate form. Sometimes the expansion is very gradual, occupying the 
upper half of the paraphyses, at others it is more abrupt, and at least three-fourths 
of the paraphysis remains linear. Gradually this form merges into the capitate 
form, and usually the thickened apex is filled with a granular plasma. In many 
of the species of Peziza with a highly coloured disc, as in the red species of 
Humaria and Sarcoseypha, in which this form prevails, the endochrome is brightly 
coloured. These paraphyses are often septate, sometimes pseudo septate, and 
rarely furcate. It may be noted here that we have every reason to believe that the 
general form of the paraphyses is as constant in any given species as the form of 
the sporidia, and deserves consideration in the discrimination of species. It has 
been of late very much the fashion to construct new genera on the form of the 
sporidia alone. It would be just as safe to construct them on tho characters of the 
paraphyses, and equally as reasonable. 
Capitate paraphyses are those in which the apex is suddenly expanded into a 
pyri-form, obovate, or subglobose head. It is perhaps not a common form, but 
it may be met with in Ascobolus, especially of the section Ryparobwus in Geoglossum 
viscosum, Peziza fibrillosa, Peziza leporum, and some others. This head contains at 
times a single large globose nucleus, at others it contains a granular protoplasm. 
A remarkable instance of this kind of paraphysis is to be found in Peziza 
jungermannie, in which the paraphyses seem to be coloured of a verdegris green, 
but as it is appears to us much of this colour is due to the gelatina hymenia which is 
greenish, as in Peziza Phillipsi it is of a beautiful amethystine hue. If either of 
these species are examined in a fresh state, and the section plentifully washed 
ee ee eee 
*The suggestion that the asci arise from the subhymenial cells, from certai 
(the scofectte) has not been satisfactorily confirmed. 2 Pree “ae 
