.IV] 



PEZIZALES 



117 



as twenty (Dodge), sometimes a much smaller number of cells. These are 

 at first uninucleate (Harper, Welsford), or multinucleate (Dangeard); later 

 they always contain numerous nuclei (fig. 7 6a). One of them, usually the 



Fig. 76. Ascobolus furfur aceus Pers.; a. young archicarp, x 750; b. rather older 

 specimen showing pores between the cells, x 625 ; after Welsford. 



fourth from the apex (Welsford), enlarges, buds out ascogenous hyphae and 

 functions as the oogonium. Those near the base form a stalk, and those 

 towards the apex may be regarded as constituting a now functionless 

 trichogyne. 



The cells on each side of the oogonium communicate with it by means 

 of pores (fig. 76 b). Additional nuclei pass into it from both the stalk and 

 terminal cells, and Welsford has observed their fusion in pairs in the 

 oogonium. The fusion nuclei pass into the ascogenous hyphae. The asci 

 are large and produce each eight spores which are violet or brownish in 

 colour ; the epispore is characteristically sculptured at maturity. There are 

 eight chromosomes in the first division in the ascus, and four in the second 

 and third (Dangeard (fig. 13), Fraser and Brooks). 



In Ascobolus glaber the archicarp is larger and more twisted than in 

 A. furfur aceus, and consists of some 

 twenty or thirty cells from one or more 

 of which the ascogenous hyphae develop 

 (Dangeard). 



In Ascobolus Winteri, a form occur- 

 ring on goose dung, and apparently 

 limited to this habitat, the archicarp 

 (fig. 77), as described by Dodge, con- 

 sists of three parts, a stalk of two or 

 three cells, a series of larger, central 

 cells, which give rise to the ascogenous 

 hyphae, and a terminal row of three 



Fig. 77. Ascobolus Winteri Rehm.; archi- 

 carp, x 1080 ; after Dodge. 



