188 FUNGI. 



branches spring up as lateral dilatations of the principal fila- 

 ment, which, once designed, enlarges according to the point 

 growth. This point growth of every branch is, to a certain 

 extent, unlimited. The filaments in and on the substratum are 

 the first existing members of the fungus ; they continue so long 

 as it vegetates. As the parts which absorb nourishment from and 

 consume the substance, they are called the mycelium. Nearly 

 every fungus possesses a mycelium, which, without regard to 

 the specific difference of form and size, especially shows the 

 described nature in its construction and growth. 



The superficial threads of the mycelium produce other fila- 

 ments beside those numerous branches which have been described, 

 and which are the fruit thread (carpophore) or conidia thread. 

 These are on an average thicker than the mycelium threads, and 

 only exceptionally ramified or furnished with partitions; they 

 rise almost perpendicularly into the air, and attain a length of, 

 on an average, half a millimetre, or one-fiftieth of an inch, but 

 they seldom become longer, and then their growth is at an end. 

 Their free upper end swells in a rounded manner, and from this 

 is produced, on the whole of its upper part, rayed divergent 

 protuberances, which attain an oval form, and a length almost 

 equal to their radius, or, in weaker specimens, the diameter of 

 the rounded head. The rayed divergent protuberances are the 

 direct producers and bearers of the propagating cells, spores, 

 or conidia, and are called sterigmata. Every sterigma at first 

 produces at its point a little round protuberance, which, with a 

 strong narrow basis, rests upon the sterigma. These are filled 

 with protoplasm, swell more and more, and, after some time, 

 separate themselves by a partion from the sterigma into inde- 

 pendent cells, spores, or conidia. 



The formation of the first spore takes place at the same end 

 of the sterigma, and in the same manner a second follows, then 

 a third, and so on ; every one which springs up later pushes 

 its predecessor in the direction of the axis of the sterigma in 

 the same degree in which it grows itself ; every successive spore 

 formed from a sterigma remains for a time in a row with one 

 another. Consequently every sterigma bears on its apex a chain 



