DopGE: METHODS OF CULTURE OF ASCOBOLACEAE 173 
diameter. They may be asexual spores designed to spread the 
species more extensively over the burned area, or they may 
possibly be blown by the wind and then germinate under suitable 
conditions in regions far removed from the parent mycelium. 
The conidiophore is slightly smaller at the end bearing the 
conidium (FIG. 9, c). One septum cuts off the conidium from 
its stalk and a second septum usually occurs at about the middle 
of the stalk. I am unable to state how these conidia are oriented 
when this species grows under normal conditions on carbona- 
ceous earth. In artificial cultures on agar media and in liquid 
extract of heated soil they show little tendency to rise above the 
surface of the medium. They may be formed along the bottom 
of the Petri dish, within the medium itself, or may extend out 
above the surface. 
A milk-white fluffy mass of mycelium always appears around 
the edge of the dish in cultures on agar. This mycelium is 
especially productive of the conidia. The conidia found on the 
surface of the medium are more or less pear-shaped and are 
bunched together on rather short threadlike stalks. Very rarely 
one finds a larger form bluntly pear-shaped and borne on an excep- 
Honally long stalk (F1c. 45). It is not uncommon to see conidia 
with bladderlike outgrowths at the end or at one side (FIG. 10, 
46, 48). In cultures several days old many of the conidia are 
entirely empty. This may have been due to a lack of sufficient 
Nourishment or to some unknown pathological condition of the 
Culture, 
The method of the origin of the ascocarp in this species is 
unique among the Discomycetes so far studied. The process 
hvolves certain perplexing complications which occur at various 
asi and we can come to a better understanding of what I 
believe to be the normal course of events by first describing what 
co a medial well-marked stage of development such as is 
na a. ¥ - 33- Thesame letters are used throughout the descrip- 
cae = ier and later stages to designate particular parts of ‘the 
(a) PParatusin this species. F1c. 33 showsa spherical conidium 
x cell Zong at the end of a rather stout stalk (6) which arises from 
its stalk @ mycelial hypha. A septum cuts off the conidium from 
- The conidium has sent out a tube (d) nearly equal in 
i 
