204 Transactions British Mycological Society. 
The first indications are seen in the coiling of a short hyphal 
branch which is extremely delicate and fragile arising from one 
of the horizontal hyphae of the subiculum round another short 
delicate vertical hypha of the subiculum, and the gradual con- 
vergence of the tips until one touches the other: whether there 
is actual fusion or not could not be made out: at this stage of 
apparent fusion the tips of the hyphae become swollen and 
these portions in material which had been fixed in formalin 
and stained with haematoxylin coloured more deeply. There 
: 3 CG SD 
a S$ @. % S & g 
Tees : 
Fig. 1. Avachnopeziza auvata Fckl. a—j, successive stages in the development 
of an apothecium; a—h, x 800; 7 andj, x 400. 
is evidently here a primitive type of sexuality—a fusion of 
similar gametes—such as is figured for Penicillium crustaceum 
and Evemascus albus. Sterile hyphae now cluster round and 
enclose these fertile hyphae arising from their basal portion, 
with the result that a ball-like colourless perithecial structure 
appears: this increases in size and soon possesses a pseudo-: 
parenchymatous exterior. Now various cells from this paren- 
chyma grow out into long hairs which at first converge round 
the summit of the ball-like structure; these then diverge and 
