260 THE PHENOMENON OF 



cell. The cylindrical cell of Sciadium (see p. 187) pos- 

 sesses uniformly distributed green contents, which are 

 interrupted in perfectly developed cells by light cross 

 streaks, and are divided into a row of 5 8 about equal 

 masses, which become gonidia. I could not detect 

 nuclei in the individual segments of the contents passing 

 into the formation of gonidia. Probably the conditions 

 are similar in Opliiocytimn (Nag. ' Einz. Alg. iv, A). It 

 seems to me probable that the formation of spores in the 

 cylindrical or fusiform mother-cells (asci) of the Lichens, 

 Pyrenomycetes, and Discomycetes, belongs to this kind of 

 cell-formation. The greater concentration of the con- 

 tents which accompanies the formation of resting spores, 

 causes the exclusion of the watery portion of the contents 

 of the mother-cell, and hence a detached position of the 

 spores presenting itself in the earliest period of their 

 isolation. The development of the spores of Peziza 

 Acetabulum, as described by Corda,* leaves scarcely a 

 doubt in this respect. In the equably diffused, opake, 

 and granular fluid contents of the mother-tube is formed 

 a row of globular structures, standing at regular dis- 

 tances, called by Corda drops of oil, which, from their 

 relation to the subsequent formation of the spores, appear 

 to be nuclei. Around these nuclei a lighter atmosphere 

 is formed, the darker granular mass accumulating in the 

 form of zones between them : which reminds us of the 

 analogous phenomena in Hydrodictyon, and in the forma- 

 tion of the pollen of Pinus and Passifora. Soon after 

 this, the individual globular nuclei appear surrounded by 

 masses of contents and membranes, consequently as the 

 central structures of so many longish spores, which are 

 separated by a light, watery fluid, containing but very 

 few granules. 



b. The daughter-cells Jill up the mother-cell irregu- 

 larly. 1 think we may reckon here the formation of the 

 gonidia of Chlorococcus (according to Nageli),f also of 



* ' Icones Fungorum,' iii, p. 38, t. vi, figs. 95, 96. 

 t ' Zeitschrift,' 1847, p. 23, (Ray Transl., 1849, p. 96,) 'Einz. Alg.,' 

 p. 17. 



