PERSONAL VIEWS ON PHYLOGENY 191 



A second type of conidial fruit, previously unknown, 

 appeared in the Ascomycetes, a characteristic example of 

 which is to be seen in the form-genus Phoma. In this 

 type the conidia are produced from the innermost cells 

 composing a spherical, or flask-shaped, hollow body or 

 perithecium, furnished with an apical pore or opening 

 through which the conidia escape when mature. In many 

 instances the structure of the perithecium is most elabo- 

 rate and as nearly approaching to a parenchymatous 

 structure as is to be met with anywhere in the fungi. 

 Now if it is possible for the Ascomycetes to evolve a 

 perfectly new type of perithecium containing asexual re- 

 productive bodies, is it not equally possible to evolve a 

 similar structure containing minute cells produced exactly 

 like conidia in form and origin, but possessing the special 

 function of male or fertilising bodies that become attached 

 to and conjugate with a trichogyne? So far as the tricho- 

 gyne itself is concerned it may be looked upon as merely 

 a more or less elongated, and more or less slender out- 

 growth of the oogonium. Such a structure is present on 

 the oogonium of Pyronenid confluens. This type of sexual 

 reproduction is only present in a degenerate form in the 

 fungi proper, so far as at present known, but is of functional 

 value in the fungal element of some lichens. This type is 

 also present in the Laboulbeniaceae, but I am by no means 

 satisfied that this group is an integral part of the fungi, 

 notwithstanding the spores being produced in asci. 



The last trace of sexual organs and the structures apper- 

 taining thereto disappear in the Ascomycetes, and the Pro- 

 tobasidiomycetes and the Basidiomycetes, which are strictly 

 and absolutely conidial forms, I consider to have originated 

 independently from conidial forms of the Ascomycetes. 



