198 CURREY, ON REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF FUNGI. 



stick, and upon examining: the Sphcpria I found the asci 

 (figs. 8 and 9) mixed with the Steganosporium spores (figs. 10 

 — 15) in the same perithecia. This would seem to show 

 satisfactorily that the Steganosporium and the Sphceria are 

 identical, a conclusion which was fortified by a further ex- 

 amination of the specimens of the former Fungus. Careful 

 sections of these latter plants disclosed the existence of the 

 bodies represented in figs. 16, 17, 18, and 19. These bodies 

 were seen in situ attached to the stratum proliferum (it can 

 hardly be called perithecium) of the Steganosporium. Figs. 16 

 and 17 can be nothing else than empty asci ; they have pre- 

 cisely the shape of these latter organs, and exhibit very 

 distinctly the internal second membrane common to the asci 

 of Fungi in general.* Figs 18 and 19 are also, I think, 

 manifestly imperfect asci. In fig. 19 the internal membrane 

 is clearly visible at the lower extremity, and in each of them 

 the endochrome is divided into eight distinct, somewhat 

 irregularly-shaped fragments, which may fairly be assumed 

 to be incipient or abnormal sporidia. These bodies (figs. 16 

 to 19) were, as I have mentioned, attached to the stratum 

 proliferum, and were situated at the bottom of the lenticular 

 cavity from which the cirrhus of the Steganosporium spores 

 emerged ; the ejected mass or cirrhus consisted almost entirely, 

 if not exclusively, of these spores, which are shown in figs. 10 

 to 15 ; and the same spores also filled the middle of the 

 cavity, whilst the lower portion of it was covered exclusively 

 with the organisms drawn in figs. 16 to 19. 



With regard to the SphcBria, the asci and sporidia drawn 

 in figs, 8 and 9 will enable the reader to form an opinion as 

 to the species. I have little doubt that it is Sphceria ambly- 

 ospora, a species which I have found on another occasion 

 associated with Steganosporium celhilosum. The sporidia, 

 however, are much more obtuse than is usual with S. 

 amhiyospora, in which the successive cells generally decrease 

 rapidly in size from one end to the other, rendering the 

 sporidium truly lageniform. The bottom sporidium in the 

 ascus, fig. 9, is nearly the normal form in Sphceria amhly- 

 ospora. In this latter ascus, where the sporidia are not quite 

 ripe, the gelatinous envelopes seen in fig. 8 were not visible, 

 and the sporidia were of a much paler colour than in fig. 8. 



* In figs. 32, 33, I have drawn two asci of Sphceria herbartim, which 

 I have observed to dehisce in a singular manner. In fig. 32 the top of 

 the ascus appears to have been carried upwards, and the internal second 

 membrane is visible at both ends. In fig. 33 the ascus has opened as it 

 were with a hinti;e ; the second membrane is reduced to a thread, which is 

 attached to and encloses a single sporidium. 



