Vol. 39 
BULLETIN 
OF THE 
_—= 
APRIL 1912 
Methods of culture and the morphology of the archicarp in 
i certain species of the Ascobolaceae 
BERNARD O. DODGE 
r (WITH PLATES 10-15) 
| INTRODUCTION 
The method of origin of the ascocarp in the Ascobolaceae has 
_« been an interesting subject of investigation since the days when 
We Bary and his contemporaries discovered the presence of spe- 
ot cially differentiated hyphae, ascogonia, etc., in young fruit bodies 
a of certain Ascomycetes. If the reports of those who have studied 
_ the origin of the ascocarp can be accepted, we have in this one 
4 family of the Ascobolaceae a wide range of variation. In Ascodes- 
__ mis a cell of the mycelium gives rise to a group of spirally coiled 
© ascogonia (Claussen, 1905). A similar cluster of antheridia arises 
fom the same mycelium and each antheridium becomes twisted 
about an ascogonium. Fertilization is brought about through 
the fusion of the one-celled trichogyne with the antheridium. In 
Theledolus, according to Ramlow (1906), the mycelium gives rise 
to an ascogonium which is at first one-celled but which later 
becomes several-celled by the formation of cross walls. The single 
scus of the ascocarp arises from the penultimate cell of the asco- 
§onium. Between these two widely different methods of ascocarp 
formation others have been described which seem to furnish evi- 
dence of a gradual loss of sexuality and the assumption of an 
apogamous or parthenogenetic development. 
: I have undertaken a general investigation of several species of 
(The Buttetin for 
March 1912 (39: 85-138. pl. 5-0) was issued 18 Ap 1912.) 
139 
