LEVINE: CyTOLOGY OF HYMENOMYCETES 147 
Within six hours, 20 to 30 per cent of the spores will germinate, 
and in general, there seem to be only slight differences between 
cultures kept in the dark and those exposed to the light. At the 
end of twenty-four hours, however, 60 to 70 per cent of the spores 
had germinated in malt-beef decoctions while only 40 to 50 per 
cent had germinated in dung decoction. The spores of Pholiota 
praecox in germinating do not swell or burst but push out a dense 
globular bud at the apical end, opposite the point of attachment. 
Germinating spores, at intervals ranging from six to twelve hours, 
were transferred from the Van Tieghem cells to slides by the 
modified stippling method, described above. They ‘were then 
stained with Flemming’s triple stain. The globular bud that 
first appears from the germinating spore is very dense and at 
first contains no nuclei. It grows rapidly into an ordinary germ 
tube and a nucleus appears in it, which is soon followed by another. 
I have not seen nuclear division figures at this stage, but soon two, 
four, and more nuclei can be found in the germ tube lying near the 
spore. In cultures fifteen hours old (PL. 4, FIG. 1) the germ tubes 
have branched and a large number of nuclei are present. The 
main germ tube is an outgrowth of the initial globular bud which 
is more or less permanent, and is still visible in older cultures. 
The cytoplasm shows a reticulated structure with larger and more 
or less numerous vacuoles. The nuclei are irregularly distributed 
through the cytoplasm and show no definitely paired arrangement. 
Few if any cross walls have been formed at this stage and the 
hyphal cells are beyond question multinucleated. The nuclei 
are very small, yet each one shows a distinct nuclear membrane, 
and a red staining nucleole, while the chromatin is granular and © 
stains a faint blue. In the further growth of the hyphae up to 
the forty-eight hour stage, new branches are formed from the 
bulbous initial bud near the spore, as well as from the main germ 
tube. Septa are still scarce in these stages; none are shown in 
FIG. 2, PL. 4. The diameter of the nuclei is nearly equal to that 
of the hypha. 
The lateral branches generally show several nuclei which are 
similar in all respects to those in the main germ tube. The 
cytoplasm is denser near the apical portion of the branches and 
fewer vacuoles appear in this region. The cells up to the eee 7 
eight hour stage are all multinucleated. 
