130 W. ARCHER. 



experiments were conducted in the dark. Though the placing 

 of the spores in pure water acted prejudicially upon germina- 

 tion, still the possibility may have been that in a nutritive 

 solution the reverse was the case ; in Peziza Fuckeliania^ 

 for example, the spores refuse to germinate in fresh water 

 but in grape-sugar solution ; on the other hand, they do so 

 once. 



2. The spores were placed on shreds of flannel saturated 

 with the nutrient fluid, so that they should be in contact 

 with the nutrient substances (the degree of concentration 

 remaining constant), without being wholly immersed ; the 

 experiments were again partly made in the dark. 



The pieces of flannel, which were smaller than an 

 ordinary slide, were previously boiled for half an hour in 

 nutritive solution, then immediately brought upon a slide 

 into the space kept moist by vapour, and after cooling, only 

 just taken out to place the spores upon them. 



To my great regret, the results were very small; the 

 culture fluids show themselves to be peculiarly adapted for 

 the purpose to which they were applied by Pasteur and Bous- 

 singault ; after a short time, on most of the slides on which 

 were drops of these fluids, perfect examples of Peniclllium 

 glaucum might be found, whilst in the course of a week the fluid 

 imbibed by the pieces of flannel, notwithstanding the previous 

 boiling, upon being squeezed out appeared almost milk- 

 white, owing to the presence of a surprising quantity of 

 Saccharomyces ; the lichen-spores, on the other hand, in 

 certain cases, either did not germinate at all, or produced 

 at any rate in germination germinating filaments, which in 

 length stood far behind those produced by the spores Avhich 

 had germinated, under favorable circumstances, in a moist 

 atmosphere. 



Since the object for which these experiments were under- 

 taken did not appear in the least capable of being attained, 

 the result of my culture of spores of the different lichens in 

 conjunction with Cystococcus-exa.mp\es would thus alone 

 have to determine Avhether I should succeed or not in 

 demonstrating the true nature of the heteromerous lichens. 

 The following will show the modus operandi and the result of 

 these culture experiments. 



In these cultures I set before myself the final aim of 

 making up one or more of the heteromerous lichens out of its 

 presumptive constituents and thereby demonstrating the just- 

 ness of the theory originated by de Bary and Schwen- 

 dener, in the same manner as Rees had succeeded for 

 ' De Bary, ' Morph. und Physiol, der Pilze,' p. 212. 



