[Vol. 2 

 356 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



not be present, and often when present and fused with the 

 trichogyne its nuclei degenerate and the ascogonium is still 

 functional producing ascogenous hyphae and asci, is in sup- 

 port of this interpretation. 



Further sterilization of the terminal portion of the archi- 

 carp proceeds as it becomes longer and more septate, the fer- 

 tile ascogonial cell or cells being near the center or base. All 

 of the sterile portion of the archicarp distal to the ascogonial 

 cells is usually interpreted as the trichogyne. I believe it 

 would be more in harmony with the historical origin of the 

 archicarp, and with the real homologies, if only the terminal 

 sterile receptive cell of the archicarp were called the trich- 

 ogyne, the other portions to be regarded as sterile portions of 

 the archicarp or ascogonium. This would be in harmony also 

 with Thaxter's ('96) interpretation of the archicarp of the 

 Laboulbeniales.'^ In this group the inferior and superior sup- 

 porting cells are sterile cells of the archicarp derived by a 

 transverse splitting of the ascogonium. Even with this inter- 

 pretation of the trichogyne of the Ascomycetes, it would be 

 a different structure from that of all the red algae where it 

 is merely a continuous prolongation of the Qgg cell. 



NOTE VI 



The coenocytic character of the mycelium of the Phycomy- 

 cetes has been presented as an obstacle to the derivation of 

 the sac fungi from the sporangium fungi (Bessey, E. A., '13) ; 

 this character can, however, have very little or no significance, 

 for many of the Ascomycetes are coenocytic. As in most of 

 the fungi, cell wall formation is delayed so that new portions 

 of filaments are often multinucleate, the cell walls being laid 

 down subsequently, sometimes enclosing one nucleus, some- 

 times several in a cell. There are the monoenergid and poly- 

 energid species of sac fungi. In the Phycomycetes cell wall 

 formation is usually longer delayed or does not occur except 

 where reproductive cells are formed. In the Mucorales old 

 mycelium frequently becomes multiseptate. It should be 

 noted that in Basidiobolus (Eidam, ^86-, Raciborski, '96; Fair- 



^ Except in the case of the multiseptate branched trichogynes. 



