TllL URKJIX OK THK >ACCHA1U>MVlETE.S. 



109 



really pure culture;-. This he succeetled in accouipliishing by 

 degrees, so that the Sarrharoinyretes now form a larjje uiid well- 

 detiueil family. 



Of the objections laid ajjaiust the det4.'rmiuatioiis made by 

 Reess, that put forward by Buekelu (V.) muht be briefly cou- 

 .sidered. This worker observed, ami repoi-ted in 18S3, that the 

 Kjxjres of smut fuuj^i ( 6V/ //«<// /k-*/, 7. r.), when j;rown under special 

 coudition.s, bud like yea«t (Fig. i j6), and that the process can 

 be caused to repeat itself as often as desired. These yeast 

 conidia (p. 22), as they were 

 termeil by lirefeld and others, 

 are incapable of exciting alco- 

 holic fermentiition or proiluciug 

 ascospores. With legard to this 

 deficiency, it was justly re- 

 marketl by REEi>s (II.), that 

 while Brefeld's observations in- 

 creased the number of instances 

 of yeast -like budding in the 

 higher fungi, they by no means 

 disproved the former worker's 

 ilemonstnition of the indepen- 

 dence of the genus Ha/^rliaro- 

 inyrea and its allociition to the 

 Agconn/i'^t'f! group. Eight years 

 later, Buekelu (IX.) repeated 

 his hypothesis that the yeasts 

 must be regarde<l as i-oni<lia from 

 higher fungi (of a >till unknown 

 genus). He wa.s reminded by E. 

 Chu. II.wsex (XVIII.) that the accuracy of this a.><sertion still 

 remaineil to be proved ; ami this latter worker also demon- 

 sti-atetl, from existing data, that no connection between the 

 life-history of the Saffhttio>ni/c€te{! and that of any other fungi 

 could possibly have been proved hitherto. Similar expre.s>ions 

 of opinion have been uttered by A. de Bary, Zopf, 11. Will, 

 and others. 



As already .stilted on several occasions (§| 220 and 243), the 

 ascus can be distingui-shinl from the sporangium by its more 

 iletinite form and by tlie number, shape, and metho<^l of forma- 

 tion of its spores. This precision of form must be prej>ent in any 

 fungus before the latter cm be classified with the A.<r,,,,,i/reifi'. 

 It is most deciiKnl in the more highly developed species, and 

 becomes pi'ogressively less so as we descend the systematic .saile ; 

 and, as a matter of fact, it is low (especially as reganls the 

 number of .spores protluced by •' ns) in the Sarrlianuiii/rettii^ 



which are the lowest of the .1- s. In this genus, even in 



one and the same species, the number of sj>ores is not always 



Fig. I j6. — UsUIaco carbo, the cause of 

 smut in oats 



I. The sporv W. Kruwn in a nutrient 

 solution, has itn-duced a pt^-lyct-llular 

 mvi-clium (f). which has put forth >ca^t- 

 hke conidia (c) Matrn. 45^1. 



;. Chains of l>iiii« from these conidia. 

 Magn. 30CW (After Brtjcid.) 



