FUNGI.— DISCOMYCETES. 



becomes round, and shoots forth a number of filaments, from which the asci eventually 

 arise. In the meantime a cluster of filaments has grown up from the hyphae that bear 

 the sexual organs and has entirely invested the archicarp ; these filaments are the large 

 sterile portion of the fructification, the hyphae of which form a pseudo-parenchyma. 

 Fig. 68 shows this cortical covering at r, and dX p p its inner portion with diagrammatic 

 indication of the sterile hyphae. The ascogenous filaments from the archicarp 

 continue to grow, and form a layer jt j, the subhymenial layer, inside the fructification, 



and send thicker club-shaped cells up- 

 wards ; these are the asci in which the 

 spores are formed. In this way a hyme- 

 nium s a is produced and is completed by 

 the sterile hyphae sending a number of 

 parallel branches, the paraphyses, in be- 

 tween the asci ; the paraphyses therefore 

 belong to the sterile portion of the fruc- 

 tification. Ultimately the cortical envelope 

 opens at the apex, the hymenium comes 

 to lie on the surface and spreads itself flat 

 out as in Fig. 69 ^, in order to release the 

 spores from the asci. 



The history of Peziza confluens, in which 

 the sexuality of the Ascomycetes was first 



Fig. 69. Peziza convexic/a. A vertical section ot the 

 entire fructification, magn. about 20 times ; k hymenium, the 

 layer in which the spore-producing tubes lie ; ^ the sterile 

 tissue of the fructification, which surrounds the hymenium 

 like a cup at its margin q ; at its base fine filaments proceed 

 from the tissue S and grow between the particles of the soil. 

 B a small portion of the hymenium magn. 550 times ; a—/ 

 spore-producing tubes (asci) ; between them slenderer tubes, 

 the paraphyses, in which are red granules. 





FIG. 70. Sexual apparatus of Peziza confluens. 

 In B fertilisation is being followed by the formation 

 of hyphae h, from which the fructification is de- 

 veloped. After Tulasne very highly magnified. 



discovered by De Bary, is shown by his observations, as supplemented by Tulasne, to be as 

 follows. The mycelium grows on the ground ; ascending branches with manyramifications 

 arise on special parts of its hyphae ; the sexual organs are formed on the extremities 

 of the ramifications in large numbers and close together in rosettes. The terminal 

 cells of the stouter branches swell into ovoid vesicles (Fig. 70, a), and these put out 

 processes which are usually curved (/) ; each of these vesicles is an archicarp. From 

 one of the cells of the same branch beneath the archicarp grows a club-shaped antheridial 



