54 FUNGI. 



and lie who has ever tried to disentangle the mass of filaments 

 which exuberantly covers the substratum of a Mucor vegetation, 

 which has reached so far as to form conidia, will not be surprised 

 that all attempts have hitherto proved abortive. The suspicion 

 of the connection founded on the gregariously springing up, and 

 external resemblance, is fully justified, if we sow the conidia in a 

 suitable medium, for example, in a solution of sugar. They 

 here germinate and produce a mycelium which exactly re- 

 sembles that of the Mucor mucedo, and, above all, they pro- 

 duce in profusion the typical sporangia of the same on its 

 bearers. The latter are till now alone reproductions of conidia- 

 bearers, and have never been observed on mycelia which have 

 grown out of conidia. 



These phenomena of development appear in the Mucor when 

 it dwells on a damp substance, which must naturally contain 

 the necessary nourishment for it, and is exposed to the atmo- 

 spheric air. Its mycelium represents at first strong branched 

 utricles without partitions ; the branches are of the higher 

 order, mostly divided into rich and very fine-pointed ramuli. 

 In old mycelium, and also in the sporangia-bearers, the contents 

 of which are mostly used for the formation of spores, and 

 the substratum of which is exhausted for our fungus, short 

 stationary pieces, filled with protoplasm, are very often formed 

 into cells through partitions in order to produce spores, that 

 is, grow to a new fruitful mycelium. These cells are called 

 gemmules, brooding cells, and resemble such vegetable buds and 

 sprouts of foliaceous plants which remain capable of develop- 

 ment after the organs of vegetation are dead, in order to grow, 

 under suitable circumstances, to new vegetating plants, as, for 

 example, the bulbs of onions, &c. 



If we bring a vegetating mycelium of Mucor mucedo into a 

 medium which contains the necessary nourishment for it, but 

 excluded from the free air, the formation of sporangia takes place 

 very sparingly or not at all, but that of gemmules is very abun- 

 dant. Single interstitial pieces of the ramuli, or even whole 

 systems of branches, are quite filled with a rich greasy proto- 

 plasm ; the short pieces and ends are bound by partitions which 



