Ill] 



PLECTASCALES 



75 



nuclei have travelled in pairs to the asci, where they unite; but Kuyper, in 

 M. Barken, reports fertilization in the female organ. 



After the fertilization stage the oogonium enlarges and gives rise to asco- 

 genous hyphae while the an- 

 theridium and trichogyne de- 

 generate. Investing filaments 

 grow up to form a sheath, the 

 inner layers of which consist of 

 delicate, nutritive cells. These 

 degenerate early, producing a 

 mass of protoplasm amongst 

 which the ascogenous hyphae 

 ramify. From the penultimate 

 cells of the latter binucleate 

 asci are developed, and after the 

 nuclei have fused eight spores 

 are formed. The ascus wall 

 breaks down and the spores are 

 finally set free after the decay 

 of the outer layer of the sheath. 



This sheath, with the en- 

 closed mass of free ascospores, 

 was long regarded as a single 

 organ containing an indefinite 

 number of spores ; for this 

 reason the fungus was placed 

 in the Hemiasci and given the 

 generic name of Monascus. 

 The later stages of develop- 

 ment are in fact difficult to 

 follow and have been variously interpreted by different authors. Thus 

 Dangeard describes the oogonium as undergoing septation before it branches, 

 while Barker interprets the mass of protoplasm in which the young asci are 

 found as the remains of the oogonium invaginated by the growth into it of 

 the ascogenous hyphae. Kuyper and Ikeno, on similar grounds, believed 

 the asci to be produced by free cell formation within the oogonium, no 

 ascogenous hyphae being developed. 



Fig. 35. Monascus purptireus Went. ; a. b, stages in 

 the development of the oogonium; after Dangeard. 

 Monascus X. Schikorra ; c. entrance of male nuclei 

 into trichogyne; d. pairing of nuclei in the oogonium ; 

 after Schikorra. 



ASPERGILLACEAE : BIBLIOGRAPHY 



1870 DE BARY, A. Eurotium, Erysiphe, Cincinnobolus nebst Bemerkungen iiber die 



Geschlechtsorgane der Ascomyceten. Beitr. z. Morph. und Phys. der Pilze, iii, p. i. 



1874 BREFELD, O. Botanische Untersuchungen iiber Schimmelpilze, ii, Penicillium, p. I. 



