\ 
"| 
231 
attributed by some authors to paraphyses. It has been affirmed, on the faith of a 
few facts which seem to point in that direction, that paraphyses are probably 
abortive asci. It has been observed in the genus Tympanus that in one 
species one or two isolated sporidia were found enclosed within paraphyses 
associated with the ordinary octosporous asci. Two or three facts of this kind may 
give plausibility to such a theory ; but on the other hand it must be remembered 
that evacuated asci collapse and become as attenuated as paraphyses. Asci, from 
which a portion of the sporidia have been ejected, will sometimes be observed 
with the remaining two or three sporidia collected near the summit, whilst 
towards the base the walls of the asci are contracted and attenuated so as to 
present an abruptly clavate appearance. If it is not conceded that in the instances 
cited such a phenomenon has been mistaken for one or two sporidia enclosed in a 
paraphyses, is it not equally probable that some asci may become abortive, and 
being mixed with the paraphyses are indistinguishable, unless specially observed 
with this view. It is contended that abortive asci do exist contemporaneously 
with paraphyses and with gravid asci, and that these abortive asci are structurally 
and functionally distinct from the paraphyses, they do not exceed asci in length, 
though less in volume, whereas paraphyses are much longer than the asci in many 
instances, but usually somewhat longer. Again, paraphyses are sometimes more 
or less clavate at the tips, but apparently barren asci would be cylindrical. The 
fact that special functions belong to asci would militate against the assumption 
that they are at the same time degraded from another function. It would seem to 
argue strongly against the hypothesis that paraphyses are abortive asci, when the 
structure of the two as well as their functions are borne in mind. Paraphyses are 
developed prior to asci, they usually exceed them in length, they are often septate 
several times, sometimes branched, often expanded at the apex and enclosing 
coloured granular protoplasm, even when the sporidia are wholly colourless, and 
it is not unusual for the ultimate cells of the paraphyses, not only to become 
deeply constricted but also to break away and lie on the surface of the hymenium 
like a fine dust, as in some species of Patellaria and Dermatea. All these 
phenomena are so distinct, that if paraphyses are really abortive asci they must be 
something move, and indeed metamorphosed asci. 
If the phrase ‘‘abortive asci” has been applied to paraphyses in the same 
sense as stamens in the Phanerogamia are regarded as metamorphosed leaves, 
then we object only to the term, and not tothe theory, and would submit that 
““metamorphosed” asci represent the idea better than ‘‘abortive” asci, which 
latter is liable to misconception. 
Doubtless the simplest form of fungus is a simple reproductive cell, beyond 
this we have the vegetative system represented by a thread and the reproductive 
by a spore. In Discomycetes, the simplest form consists of an ascus borne ona 
vegetative thread or mycelium as in Ascomyces, advancing from this we find the 
aggregated asci circumscribed by a pseudo-receptacle formed from the changed 
substance of the matrix, and then we encounter paraphyses mixed with the asci, 
ultimately the hymenium is enclosed within a distinct receptacle, If typically we 
