CHAPTER XXIII. 

 THE REPRODUCTION OF FUNGI. 



PRINCIPAL MATERIALS USED. 



Muc&r Mucedo, on fresh horse-dung, kept for a few days in a moist chamber. 



Phytophthora infestans, from diseased potato leaves. 



Pythium de Baryanum, on cress seedlings. 



Penicillium crustaceum. 



Mucor Mucedo and Penicillium crustaceum are readily obtained, the former 



after a couple of days, the latter in about a week, upon damp bread, 



kept in a warm room under a bell-glass. 



PRINCIPAL REAGENTS USED. 

 Iodine Logwood. 



WE will now study a few typical examples of reproduction, taken 

 from the group of the Fungi. 



Mucor Mucedo. If a piece of damp bread is placed under a 

 glass bell-jar, it is covered, even in a few days, with a thick felt of 

 fungus threads (mycelium), which almost always belongs to the 

 pin mould, Mucor Mucedo, one of the Phycomycetes, This 

 fungus soon shows itself very luxuriantly upon fresh horse-dung, 

 kept in a closed moist chamber. From the substratum arise 

 erect fruiting branches, the gonidiophores, an inch or more 

 in height, which bend towards the source of light, and end each 

 one with a globular, yellow or brown, head, readily visible with 

 the lens, and even with the naked eye. If we lift some of this 

 material carefully from the substratum, and place it in a drop 

 of water, we can determine, by means of sufficiently strong 

 magnification, that the mycelium consists of thick, much- 

 branched, irregularly septate sacs (hyphae), and that from these 

 arise the straight, unseptate and un branched gonidiophores, each 

 of which bears a globular head, the gonidangium. If still 

 unripe, this remains unchanged in water ; its contents consist 



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