238 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



Ascobolacec? are peculiar in their habit of discharging their 

 asci so as to more widely disseminate their spores." That 

 this is a mistake may be shown by a simple experiment. If 

 a small piece of glass be moistened on one side with glycerine 

 or some other substance which will furnish a sticky surface, 

 and suspended over the plants with the moist surface down 

 until the asci have had time to eject their spores, the sticky 

 film will be found upon examination to contain spores and no 

 asci. 



The most interesting form for this experiment is Ascobohts 

 immersus Pers. PI. XVI, Fig. 1. Plants of this species may 

 be grown in the laboratory on suitable material. In spite of 

 the small size of the plants they may be easily studied on 

 account of the large size of the spores and asci. If grown 

 under cover, after removing the cover the emergent asci can 

 be seen with the naked eye and counted with the aid of the 

 hand-lens. The asci do not all mature at one time but from 

 three to five may be seen at one time in the same plant. At 

 the time of the maturity of the spores, the asci, project to 

 such an extent that the eight spores are borne in that part of 

 the ascus above the surface of the hymenium. After leaving 

 the plants uncovered for a short time the asci will be seen to 

 suddenly disappear one at a time or several at once. DeBary 

 says that in the Ascobolacece the spores are ejected from all 

 the mature asci in each plant at one time and not in suc- 

 cession. In this case the mature asci do not always eject 

 their spores at one time, but it may take place in succession. 

 If a glass be suspended over these plants as described above 

 it will soon be found to contain spores in clusters of eight 

 each; the spores having been ejected with such force that all 

 of the spores from each individual ascus remain attached to 

 the glass. In this case the spores are in clusters but not in 

 close contact as they were in the ascus but scattered as shot 

 would scatter when fired from a gun. In other species of 

 Ascobolus, in which the asci are more numerous the spores are 

 not in clusters but cover the entire surface of the glass, but in 

 no case are asci found to be present. 



