490 The Botanical Gazette. [November, 
and kept in Van Tieghem cells, as described, showed little 
or no change if allowed to remain perfectly quiet. 
After standing from a few daysto a week or more, however, a 
slight jar was often sufficient to cause the perithecia to rupture 
and the asci and ascospores to escape. When this took place 
probably 8 per cent. of the ascospores collapsed, while the 
remainder either made no change or in the course of three or 
four hours began to send out germ tubes. The following 
case, which differs but little from others observed, illustrates 
the matter under consideration. Perithecia from the open 
ground were placed in Van Tieghem cells on January 7th. 
Twenty days later no change had taken place, the cell hav- 
ing been kept free from jars and other disturbances. The cell 
was then placed under the microscope and gently jarred with 
a needle, whereupon one of the perithecia suddenly burst and 
the asci began to escape into the drop of water surrounding 
the mass. The fitst ascus was violently ejected from the 
perithecium to a distance equal to about twice the length of 
the former. This was immediately followed by a second and 
a third ejected in the same way (fig. 21). The ruptured wall 
of the perithecium then closed and no more asci escaped. In 
coming through the ruptured walls of the perithecium the 
asci were more or less constricted, but they immediately as- 
sumed their normal shape as soon as they were entirely free. 
No sooner were the asci free than their spores began to escape 
or else to break up within the ascus. In the former case they 
escaped from the top, side, or bottom in much the same way 
as did theasci, but with less force. A large part of the spores 
burst as soon as they were free from the asci. In bursting 
the spores literally flew to pieces, the walls and contents be- 
ing scattered in all directions. Nearly all the spores that 
failed to burst began to send out germ tubes in four or hve 
hours, and at the end of twelve hours the tubes (fig. 22) had 
reached a length twice that of the spore or more. From a 
number of observations it appears that the sudden ejection of 
the asci is largely due to the abrupt contraction of the walls 
Me A aici SE eal oe ck oa 
_ *It was not uncommon to find perithecia which had been kept in water send- 
ing out long, hyaline filaments from the outer walls. At first it was believed 
that the spores wit asci had germinated and pushed their germ tubes 
through the perith s, at this was not the case, however, was 
s by the fact that when ruptured the asci and spores within were found in 
