MOXOGIUPII OF THE r.ABOUhUKXrACEiE. 227 
piradoxus it is nearly horizontal, so that the asci growing inward, downward, and up- 
ward arc much bent and distorted when mature. When they occur in pair^s the asco- 
genic cells are more or less 8ynnnetric;i11y arranged, and when there arc but two, lie 
facing one another in a plane at right angles to that in which the pcrithecium is flat- 
tened. Where there are two or four pairs the peril liecium is but slightly if at all 
flattened, and the ascogeuic cells lie facing one nnother : one anterior, one posterior, 
and two lateral, or ap[)roxiuiately so. The form of the ascogcnic cell is s-ul)joct to 
little variation, being, as a rule, oval in outline in face view ; but in a few genera it 
is much elongated, as in Amorphomyces (Plate IV, figs. 25-28), or Sphaleromyces, 
and in the former case may possibly become divided by a transverse septum in certain 
instances. 
In Stigmatomyces, as has been mentioned, the asci bud from the ascogenic cell, 
first from one side, then from the other: m that, as a result, Iwo dennite 
o 
r 
formed, such as are illustrated in Plate IV, fig. 18, in Plate T, fig. 38 
left), and in Plate Ilf, fig. l,all of which represent dorsal views of the as(ms ma^s, the 
asco^enic cell Ivinor away from the observer and being consequently invisible. In the 
last mentioned figure, a slight irregularity is noticeable from the fact that an extra 
ascus has been abnormally produced at one point lying in the median line between the 
two rows normally formed. The most conspicuous exception to this biscriate arrange- 
ment of the asci is found in the genus Moschomyces, the very large ascogenic cell of 
D 
although such 
f asci arranged in many vertical row? 
there seems in a few other cases to b 
from the biseriate typ 
The form of the ascus at maturity is subject to unimportant variation??, being 
practically identical in nearly all the genera. It varies from a somewhat stout and 
short type (Plate VIII, fig. 28 ; Plate II, fig. 11 ; Plate I, fig. 25) to more slender forma 
(Plate XI, fig. 17 ahd Plato XXIV, fig. 9). At the time when the spores are fully 
formed, the ascus is commonly short-stalked ; but as the latter begins to be 
nnward bv the ever-increasimr mass of asci below it, the basal part often bee 
drawn out into a long slender pedicel, which finally sloughs off as the ascus wall itself 
begins to dissolve. In almost all cases the asci are four-spored at maturity, as in the 
majority of the figures cited, and are distinctly flattened, the only known exceptions 
to this rule being presented by the two genera, Moschomyces (Plate XI, fig. 17) and 
Compsomyces, in both of which they are definitely eight-spored and more nearly 
cylindrical. The asci are never naturally discharged from the pcrithecium, having 
wholly dissolved some time before they reach the terminal pure of the latter; but by 
