472 PRACTICAL BOTANY 



Observations should also be made on Bofrytis cinerea, an ashy 

 grey mould which is common on decaying vegetable matter, and 

 even on parts of living plants in greenhouses which are kept too 

 damp : this is the conidial form of a Peziza, Remove a small 

 quantity of the mould, moisten it with a drop of alcohol, and 

 mount 'in water : the conidiophores are upright-growing septate 

 and branched hypha?, which bear the conidia in tufts, on the end 

 of the main hyphae, or on short lateral branchlets, which may 

 again bear secondary branches. If old conidiophores be 

 examined, they may be found covered with the scars where lateral 

 branchlets had previously been ; these, after producing their 

 conidia, shrivel up, and the scar is all that remains of them, while 

 the conidiophore may continue its growth and produce fresh 

 branchlets and fresh conidia. 



Note the position of the conidia, and the delicate sterigmata 

 by which they are attached. 



The conidia may be readily germinated in Must, or in a freshly 

 boiled decoction of French Plums, and cultures of the mycelium, 

 which shows many interesting features, may be thus obtained. If 

 a pure culture be desired the watch-glass, the decoction, and all 

 the needles, &c., which are used must be carefully sterilized by 

 heating, and a very few conidia must be taken from a perfectly 

 pure patch of the fungus. 



The fungus Ascololus is also to be examined. It appears with 

 great constancy on horse- or cow-dung, if kept for two or three 

 weeks under a bell-glass. If the small flat cups be cut vertically, 

 sections will show a structure essentially similar to Peziza^ but 

 on a smaller scale. 



In sections of the fruit-body when very young the archicarp 

 and antheridial branch should be looked for, as well as their 

 connection with the ascogenous hyphoe. 



