76 VAN TIEGHEM AND LE MONNIER. 



though we now know that others of the group also mani- 

 fest it. 



On the third day the Mucor produced fructification ; the 

 Ch(stocladiuni did not do so till it had developed in the 

 air its long slender branching hyphse. These generally 

 originated from a mycelial tubercle or from a point adjacent 

 to one, but much more frequently they were developed from 

 the ordinary hyphae of the Chcetocladium remote from any 

 point of union with the Mucor ; on the other hand, many of 

 the tubercles produced no aerial hyphee at all. On the fourth 

 day the aerial hyphse developed branches Avith more or less 

 complicated groups of sporangia, but always destitute of 

 pointed terminations which only develope subsequently with 

 increased vigour of growth. Whenever in the air within the 

 cell the sporangiferous hyphae of Mucor come into contact 

 with the long flexuous hyphseof Chcetocladium, unions of the 

 same kind are effected as occur in the case of those which 

 are submerged. 



These observations quite confirm all that Brefeld has 

 stated, and it must be allowed that the ChcBtocladium attains 

 by virtue of its parasitism a much more considerable de- 

 velopment. ChcBtocladium Brefeldii is not a parasite in the 

 absolute sense of the word, which would imply that parasitism 

 is a necessity of its existence. Yet it undoubtedly possesses 

 the power by forming unions with Mucor of appropriating 

 nutriment from it. Yet we have cultivated the two plants 

 together, without being able to detect any union between 

 them. 



The species of Chcetocladium are then indifferently 

 parasitic or not. Other species of 3Iucorini exhibit the same 

 phenomena, in appearance so contradictory — one plant fixing 

 itself upon another and drawing from it part of its nutriment, 

 yet able at the same time to develope, live, and fructify 

 autonomously. But perhaps, after all, this kind of am- 

 biguous parasitism need not very much surprise us. In fact, 

 all^ fungi, like all animals, are parasites in relation to 

 chlorophyll-containing plants, from which ultimately they 

 must needs draw their supply of carbon. Being then in the 

 last resort parasitic we need not be astonished if the extent 

 of their parasitism should in different cases be a little more 

 or a little less marked. 



