CUKREY, ON REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS OF FUNGI. 199 



Fig. 20 represents a ripe sporidium from the same peri- 

 thecium as the ascus fig. 8. Fig. 21 is a sporidium from 

 another specimen of Sphceria amblyospora. This sporidium, it 

 will be seen, has its envelope fully developed, and its colour, 

 like that of all those which were quite ripe, was a dark olive- 

 brown. Most of the sporidia in all the specimens had three 

 septa, but som.e had two, and a few only one. 



By placing the spores of the Stef/anos})orium in w ater under 

 thin glass, and securing them from evaporation, I found that 

 they germinated without difficulty, and the forms assumed by 

 them at the commencement of that process were veiy curious. 

 Several of the partitions into which the spores were divided 

 threw out contemporaneously slender white filaments, the 

 colour of which contrasted strongly with the dark green of the 

 spores. At this stage of the process the spores (Figs. 22, 

 23, 24) with their shoots had the appearance of large insects, 

 the spores representing the bodies, and the germ-filaments 

 the legs. One of these germinating spores had a round 

 vesicle attached to the extremity of one of the germ-fila- 

 ments, but whether this vesicle was really the expanded 

 apex of the filament or the spore of some other Fungus 

 accidentally adherent, I cannot say with certainty. The latter 

 is not improbable, for every Mycologist must be aware that 

 notwithstanding the greatest care in cleaning, the spores of 

 some previously-examined Fungus will frequently adhere to 

 the slides, and if cai'e be not taken to distinguish such inter- 

 lopers, erroneous conclusions may be the result. Fig. 25 

 represents a spore in which the germ-filament has attained a 

 considerable length, and has thi'own out lateral branches in 

 many directions. A few days later fresh branches had been 

 produced from the main filament, and further lateral shoots 

 from these fresh branches, the whole forming such a com- 

 plicated maze of filaments that any attempt to draw them 

 with the Camera lucida would have been quite hopeless. 

 The filaments were of a somewhat greenish colour with 

 granular contents, and a multitude of small nuclei were 

 scattered here and there irregularly throughout their whole 

 extent. 



It will be seen by comparing figs. 10 — 15 and figs. 22 — 25, 

 that the Steganosporium spores vary much in size and shape. 

 The colour is constant, being a dull olive-green. 



SpHiERiA Cryptosporti. — In the former paper to which I 

 have referred, I described a new species of SphcBria under the 

 above name, and at the same time certain facts were brought 

 forward, which appeared to show that the Fungus known by 



p 2 



