146 DopGE: METHODS OF CULTURE OF ASCOBOLACEAE 
ascogonia, one antheridium coiling spirally about each ascogonium. 
Fusion takes place between the trichogyne and the antheridium. 
According to Ramlow (1906) the mature ascogonium of Thelebo- 
lus stercoreus is a more or less spirally coiled body composed of five 
or six cells. Each cell is uninucleated except the penultimate cell, 
which contains two nuclei. The ascus is formed directly from the 
penultimate cell of the ascogonium. He was unable to find any 
organ corresponding to an antheridium. Occasionally two or 
three asci are found in one apothecium. This results from the 
inclusion of as many separate ascogonia within one apothecium. 
Overton (1906) finds that Thecotheus Pelletieri has a compound 
fruit body containing several ascogonia. Each ascogonium is 
composed of several multinucleated cells and resembles in form the 
ascogonium of Ascobolus. He is unable to find any opening be- 
tween the adjacent cells of the ascogonium. The ascogenous 
hyphae may arise from any or all the cells of the ascogonium. 
Dangeard (1907) has described observations on many of the 
species of Ascobolaceae and related Discomycetes. In what he 
regards as Ascophanus ochraceus he finds that the ascocarp origi- 
nates from a rosette of eight or ten ascogonia. These ascogonia 
resemble those of Pyronema although they are somewhat smaller. 
The ascogonium is prolonged into one or two elongated cells 
and these continue as a slender filament bending back and over 
the ascogonium. He claims that this outgrowth does not cor- 
respond to a trichogyne as no antheridium is present. The 
mature ascogonium of Ascobolus furfuraceus consists of about 
ten cells. It arises as a lateral branch from the mycelium and as 
growth proceeds is cut up into multinucleated cells. As it 
develops it becomes more or less coiled, forming an irregular 
spiral of one or two turns. He does not find the large pores in 
the transverse walls reported by Harper (1896), on the contrary 
he finds that the pores are just such as occur in the septa of the 
vegetative hyphae, too minute to allow of a bodily transfer of 
nuclei and cytoplasm. The asci are formed from the binucle- 
ated cells of the ascogenous hyphae. The method of forming the 
ascogonium in a species that he thinks may be Ascobolus glaber, 
differs widely from that of A. furfuraceus. The ascogonium has 4 
stalk of twenty or thirty cells of much less diameter than the cells of 
