251 MONOGRAPH OF THE LxiBOULBEXIxiCE^ 
If, on tlie otlie 
finds that the diffe 
d, the group is compared with tlie ascomycetous f 
5 in g-eneral structure are apparent and not real, th 
o 
n 
body consisting of a septate filament which elongates and branches in a defi 
The thallus 
% 
h personally I regard such a suggestion as a mei 
spec 
I must confess that if one must have a theory of derivation in this case on a basis of 
ascertained facts, an origin of the nature above indicated is in my own 
prob 
op 
o 
which is usually held 
ned, by a p 
my mind, improbable assumption that a parasitically degraded 
been reached by the carposp 
of upward development, the same goal which has 
the other hand 
sideration of the fungi as a heterogeneous group derived through 
diffei-ent points from types already elaborated in the alg 
Speculations of this nature are, however, of little value in the absence of facts by 
hich they may be substantiated ; yet if the origin of the (amWy from 
Florid 
^''^^^^"'^*''^^^' it i« ^^Imost equally a matter of conjecture if . 
attempts to determine their exiot r^m'nf ..f ,,> • • ^ n * " . 
^, ., , . , ^^^^^ P^"^t of nnion with the Ascomycetes in gene 
While 
tency, and entomogenous habit might 
3 
fashion within a general enveloping membrane. 
different in the two cases, and the perithecium of the Laboulbeniaceae is exactly com- 
parable to tlie corresponding structure in other Ascomycetes, like Sphoerotheca for 
example ; the process of formation in either case involving the enclosure of a female 
cell, through the upgrowth around it of filaments originating below its base. It is 
further unquestionably true that its sexual organs and sexual reproduction are strictly f 
homologous with the corresponding structures and phenomena that have been 
described in the Collemaceae, in Ascobolus, in Sphaerotheca, and in other instances. 
Lastly, the products resulting from this sexual process, the asci and ascosporcs, are 
identical and homologous with those similarly resulting in the cases mentioned. 
That the Liaboulbeniacese greatly resemble the Floridese may then be inferred from ^ 
tlie general structure of its members, its sexual phenomena, and the development of 
its sporocarps and asci, resemblances which, it may be added, are coupled with an 
aquatic or sub-aquatic habit. That it belonprs not amono- the alofoe, but amono^ the 
fungi, is indicated by the absence of chlorophyl and of true cellulose in its cells, 
coupled with a parasitic habit; while the products of its sexual reproduction, the asci 
and ascospores, are those of fungi and by no means of algae. 
In view of these fixcts the derivation of the Ascomycetes through the Laboul- 
beniaceoD from some branch of the Floridese seems a supposition not unworthy consid- 
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