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Botany. — '^On the develop ment of the perithecium of Monascus 

 purpiireus Went and Monascus Barkeri Dang'' By Mr. H. P. 

 KuYPER. Communicated by Prof. F. A. F. C. Went. 



((Communicated in the meeting of May 28, 1904). 



With a, view to the conflicting resuUs obtained by Went '), 

 ÜYEDA '), Barker '), Ikeno ') and Dangeard ') in their investigations 

 concerning tlie development of the perithecium in the genus Monascus, 

 it seemed desirable to study once more the forms investigated by them. 



The results of an investigation of Monascus puri)ureus and Monascus 

 Barkeri will be briefly communicated here ; a more extensive article 

 on the same subject will soon be published elsewhere. 



Monascus purpureus was obtained by placing externally sterilised 

 ang-cac grains in boxes containing a sterile nutrient, after which the 

 mycelium developed in a few days. 



Mr. Barker had the very great kindness to send me a culture of 

 the Samsu fungus, studied by him. 



. Both moulds were cultivated on sterilised bread or on thin plates 

 of malt-gelatine. In the latter case the gelatine was dissolved in 

 water of about 30° C. and the remaining mycelium, as well as the 

 bread, fixed in Reiser's bichloride of mercury-acetic acid. 



Microtomic sections 2 — 5 ft thick, of the material melted in paraffine, 

 Avere stained with Heidenhain's ferro-haematoxilin ') and partly re- 

 stained for 1 or 2 minutes with a saturated aqueous solution of 

 orange-G. In this case the slides were at once washed in absolute 

 alcohol and then inclosed in canada balsam, as in the former case. 



Monascus purpureus. 



The two hyphae whose appearance precedes the development of 

 a perithecium ^), the pollinodium (le premier filament couvrant) *) 

 and the ascogonium, do not seem to me to enter into open com- 

 munication. The ascogonium divides into two cells, the anterior one 

 of which soon becomes irrecognisable in later stages of development. 

 This division of the ascogonium in some cases takes place at a 



1) Ann. des sc. nat. Bot. Ser. 8 T. I. 1895, p. 1. 



2) The Bot. Magaz. vol. XV, 1902. 



3) Ann. of Bot. vol. XVII, 1903, p. 167. 



4) Ber. d. deutschen bot. Ges, Band XXI, 1903, p. 259. 



5) Comptes rendus, Acad. Sc. T. GXXXVI, 1903, p. 1281. 



6) 48—60 hours. 

 "') Went 1. c. 



") Went 1. c. pag. 3. 



6* 



