262 THALLOPHYTES. 



bears these organs, and these surround the rosette of the organ of conjugation, 

 enclosing it in- a dense felt. This felt forms the substance of the receptacle ; upon 

 its upper side densely crowded hyphae immediately rise up to form the hymenial 

 layer ; finally the receptacle forms a Peziza-cup, which possesses somewhat the form 

 represented in Fig. 183, and produces the ascospores in its hymenium. Woronin 

 observed similar phenomena in P. granulosa and scutellata. In these species branches 

 consisting of three or more cells arise from the mycelium ; the terminal cell swells out 

 into a globular or ovoid form, without, however, putting out a prolongation ; from the 

 cell lying beneath it arise two or more slender filaments which attach themselves 

 closely to the former. By this means the conjugating apparatus is densely enveloped in 

 numerous hyph^ which originate beneath it ; and from them is developed the fruit-cup. 

 In Ascobolus pulcherr'imus the structure which corresponds to the structure af\x\ Fig. i 83 

 consists of a vermiform body, which Tulasne calls the Scoledte. It is a branch of the 

 mycelium, consisting of a row of short cells which are much broader than those of 

 the mycelium. The adjacent threads put out small branches or Antheridia, the terminal 

 cells of which attach themselves firmly to the anterior part of the scolecite. It is sub- 

 sequently covered over, together with this fertilising organ, by branched hyphae which 

 spring from the neighbouring mycelium ; and a ball is thus formed in the middle of 

 which lies the scolecite ; and this finally grows into the fruit-cup. To these observa- 

 tions of Woronin, Janczewski^ has recently added the additional important fact that 

 in Ascobolus fiirfuraceus, where the processes agree in other respects with those of 

 A. pulcherrimus, the tissue of the cup, together with the paraphyses, proceeds from 

 the branches of hyphge which envelope the conjugating apparatus, and that, on the other 

 hand, the asci are derived from a central cell of the scolecite. This cell puts out a 

 number of filaments which penetrate between the meshes of the tissue of the receptacle, 

 ramify extensively between the bases of the paraphyses, and there form the sub-hymenial 

 layer, out of which the asci spring and grow up among the paraphyses. By this it is 

 demonstrated that the scolecite corresponds to the ascogonium of Eurotium (and 

 generally of the Pyrenomycetes) ; and it is to be expected that a structure similar to 

 the female fertilising apparatus (Fig. 183, af) will hz proved to precede the formation 

 of the asci of Peziza conflue7ts. 



The similarity of these processes to the formation of the reproductive organs of 

 Floridese, which I have already pointed out in the earlier editions of this book, was also 

 recognised by De Bary. The chief difference lies in this — that in the Floridece, instead 

 of the antheridia, cells endowed with passive motion which detach themselves from the 

 plant conjugate with the female organs of reproduction. The ascogonium (or the 

 scolecite), on the other hand, is comparable to the trichophore in all the essential points 

 by which both are at once distinguished from the oogonia of other Alga? and Fungi. 



(5) Lichens^. From the most recent researches of Schwendener^, there can no 

 longer be any doubt that the Lichens are true Fungi of the section Ascomycetes, but 



1 [Annales des Sci. Nat. 1872, vol. XV, p. 198.] 



2 Tulasne, Memoire pour servir a I'histoire organographique et physiologiqiie des Lidiens 

 (Annales des Sci. Nat. 3rd series, vol. XVII). — Schwendener, Untersuchungen iiber den Flechten- 

 thallus (in Niigeli's Beitriige zur wissensch. Botanik. i860 and 1862. — Schwendener, Laub- u. 

 Gallertflechten (Niigeli's Beitrage zur wissensch. Botanik. iS68). — Ditto, Flora 1872, nos. 11-15. 

 [Quart. Journ. Micr. Sc. 1873, p. 235.] 



^ [The views of Schwendener have been corroborated by Bornet in an elaborate memoir pub- 

 lished in the Ann. des Sci. Nat. 1873, vol. XVII. He also put them to a synthetical test by sowing 

 the spores of Parmelia pariet'na upon Protococcus. About the fifteenth day the hyphae were well 

 developed and ramified. Wherever they met isolated cells of Protococcus or groups of them, 

 they attached themselves either directly or by means of a lateral branch. They did this to the 

 Protococcus only, neglecting altogether the other bodies which were mixed with it. Similar results 



