280 H. MARSHALL WAED. 



so-called paracyst. The raacrocyst is an ovoid vesicle, filled 

 with protoplasm, &c., and provided with a hook-like tubular 

 prolongation. The paracyst is a club-shaped branchlet, close 

 to the macrocyst ; the apex of the paracyst and the hook-like 

 prolongation become united. After this — the '' process of fer- 

 tilization " — branches spring from below, envelope the sexual 

 organs, and form the perithecium, in which the asci arise. 



Tulasne ^ described an open communication through the 

 hook -like process, placing the protoplasm of the macrocyst and 

 paracyst in connection. De Bary, much later,- speaks with 

 great caution, and considers it undecided that a true sexual 

 process occurs. Fisch ^ doubts whether these organs have 

 anything to do with the formation of the asci. Sachs '^ and 

 Goebel ^ describe the organs and the sexual process in terms 

 which Kihlmann thinks too confident and premature at the 

 time. 



I now pass to the observations made by Kihlmann himself. 

 The macrocysts and paracysts arise together in pairs as 

 terminal swellings of the branches. The hook-like prolonga- 

 tion of the macrocyst becomes fused to the apex of the 

 paracyst, much as described by previous writers ; but before 

 the apex of the hook-like process meets the paracyst, a solid 

 septum cuts ofi" its communication with the macrocyst at the 

 point where it leaves the latter. 



Hence a mingling of the protoplasm in the two " sexual " 

 organs is impossible, and the open communication described by 

 Tulasne never occurs. From certain changes in the appearance 

 of the protoplasm of the paracyst, at the time when the hook- 

 like prolongation fuses with it, and from the peculiar refractive 

 appearance of the septum, the author is impelled to ask, May 

 not diffusion occur? But, as a matter of observatioUj the 

 protoplasm in the paracyst does not perceptibly diminish in 



1 Op. cit. 



" ' Beitr. zur Morph., &c.,' R. iv. 



^ ' Bot. Zeit.,' 1882 ; ' Beitr. zur Eiitw. eiuiger Ascomyceten.* 

 " 'Text-book; p. 309. 

 ' Grundziige der Systematik, &c.,' p. 123. 



