170 DopGE: METHODS OF CULTURE OF ASCOBOLACEAE 
TABLE VIII gives the data obtained in germination experiments 
with the several species just described. The percentage of 
germination was not recorded. 
ASCODESMIS NIGRICANS Van Tieghem. (Boudiera Claussenit P. 
Henn.) 
This species appeared in a damp chamber culture of Gym- 
noascus ruber and Ascobolus viridulus on dog dung, April 2, 1910. 
Several germinated spores were found on the slides used to catch 
the spores of the Ascobolus. The same fungus appeared on human 
excrement the following September, and a year later still another 
crop was found growing on goose dung. The spores germinate at 
room temperatures equally well in dung decoction agar and ina — 
medium made up with decoction of heated soil. Some of the — 
plates were heated to 45°-50° C. for 10 minutes without killing , 
the spores. The mycelium grows rapidly and ascogonia and 
antheridia appear the second day. As many as ten concentric 
zones of fruits are formed in some plates. In this condition it | 
resembles the culture of Thelebolus stercoreus described by Ramlow — 
(1906), except that the zones of ascocarps are wider than the sterile 
spaces between adjacent zones. These two species are the only 
ones of the Ascobolaceae I have grown artificially that show such | 
concentric zones. ; 
The species of Discomycetes, Detonia trachycarpa, Lachnes 
melaloma, and Plicaria violacea were frequently found on carbon® — 
ceous earth along with Ascobolus carbonarius. Spores of these 
species did not germinate when heated to 65° C. ina heated soil 
decoction agar. Ascobolus pusillus (FIG. 8) is another species fre- | 
quently found on old burned places. I tried two inoculations 
with spores of this species. The plates were heated to 65 
None of the spores of A. pusillus germinated while practically : 
all of the spores of A. carbonarius did. : 
As is well known, the spores of Pilobolus germinate in 4 duns 
decoction at normal room temperatures. 1 found that they wold : 
also germinate in a dung decoction agar when heated. : 
method killed off many of the bacteria and spores of other fungl 2 
making it possible to get a fairly pure culture. 3 
If one considers the evidence which has been given above of the : 
conditions under which the spores of fourteen species have Leis ; 
