268 CURREY, ON THE REPRODUCTIVE 



minated in the greatest abundance ; and not only had the free 

 sporidia — those which had escaped from their asci — thus 

 sprouted, but those which were still enclosed had also sent 

 forth their gernv-filaments, which had penetrated the mem- 

 brane of the asci in all directions. 



In fig. 4, I have I'epresented one of the asci in which nearly 

 all the sporidia have begun to grow, and other asci in the 

 neighbourhood were even more densely covered with filaments 

 than the one shown in fig. 4. On the following morning 

 (May 4) the germ-filaments had reached a considerable length, 

 and had become branched and indistinctly septate in several 

 places (see figs. 5 and 6), as indeed was the case on the pre- 

 vious day with some of the more advanced shoots. At one 

 point the germ-filament had protruded short branches at right 

 angles to the main filament on either side (see fig, 5), and at 

 the end of each of these short branches was seated one of the 

 globular vesicles above mentioned. The nature of these 

 vesicles is uncertain ; but it is not improbable they may be 

 homologous to what have hitherto been called the spores of 

 Tuhercularia vulgaris, this latter plant being now considered 

 to be nothing more than the mycelium of a Sphceria (^S. ciuna- 

 harina), and the so-called spores to be, in fact, only conidia 

 of that Sphceria. I have as yet only seen these globular vesicles 

 in the two instances shown in fig. 5, but I have observed other 

 branches of the mycelium wliich became rounded at the apex, 

 and in which a nucleus was formed. After the formation of 

 the nucleus a fresh germ was thrown out (see fig. 7). Some- 

 thing similar to this has been observed by M. Tulasne in the 

 Uredinece, in which the germ -filament has become inflated, 

 and then thrown out a fresh shoot.* 



In fig. 8 is represented a cellular body, which was attached 

 to the mycelium by a delicate stalk, the stalk itself being 

 attached to the side of tlie body. There seems no reason to 

 doubt that this body, differing as it does from some of those 

 shown in fig. 3, only in being of a much paler colour, repre- 

 sents a young state of one of those organisms. I first observed 

 it about nine days after the commencement of germination, at 

 which time also the germ-filaments had in places begun to 

 form a network by a kind of conjugation, which had taken 

 place between the germ-filaments proceeding from different 

 sporidia. 



It follows from what has been said, that if we consider the 



spermatia as reproductive bodies, in the proper sense of the 



word, as it is applied to seeds or spores, i. e., as fruit, then 



Sphceria herharum has four distinct sets of reproductive organs* 



* yee vol. ii. of the ' Annales des Sciences' for 1854. 



