232 THAXTER. — MONOGRAPH OF THE LABOULBENIACE^. 
Cond 
ttrps 
in the above account. Although no one who has a knowledge at first hand of the Laboulbeniales in a 
livins condition would for a moment doubt the correctness of this assumption, it should be men- 
tioned here that the cytology of the reproductive process is still unknown, however clearly its general 
nature may be indicated by the observed morphology, and certain writers have denied in iota the 
sexual nature of the supposed male and female organs. Alfred Moeller, for example, although he 
has no personal knowledge of these structures, makes the statement without reservation, (Schimper, 
Bot Untcrs. a. d. Tropen, IX, p. 45, 1901) that the co-called antheridia are merely conidi- 
oplion . producing conidia, the supposed sperm-cells, in a Chalara-Yike fashion. Yet if these 
supposed sperm-cells are in reality non-sexual propagative bodies, it seems singular, since they are 
produced in enormous quantities in many cases, that no indication has ever been seen which would 
suggest the possibility that individuals ever arise from bodies other than the ascospores. If indi- 
viduals were ever developed from these minute micrococcus or bacillus-like, for the most part naked, 
protoplasmic masses, such an origin would certainly have been indicated in some instances among 
the great mass of material examined. The whole history of the early development, moreover, for- 
bids such an assumption, and especially the conditions found in the unisexual forms. That matters 
should he so arranged in the latter that a conidial and an ascigerous individual should be invari- 
ably predetermined in every spore-pair, seems a manifest absurdity. The conidial theory also, over- 
looks the trichopjvne, often a very remarkable and highly differentiated structure, as well as the 
adherence of the "conidia" to certain special portions of it. Even if one could be contented with some 
of the utterly ridiculous explanations of " trichogynes '* found elsewhere among the fungi, that have 
been gravely advanced, it would be difficult to see, for example, in the present instances, why a 
"ventilating apparatus" should cease to ventilate and should disappear at the very moment when 
the active development of the region ventilated was beginning and when "ventilation," one would 
suppose, would be most necessary. That these structures are designed to "terebrate" the empty air 
is also, to say the least, an unsatisfying explanation of their presence. 
Abnormalities among the Laboulbeniales occasionally occur, some instances of which have been 
previously illustrated, as for example the substitution of an antheridial appendage for a perithecium. 
Instances of this nature in which bisexual individuals may become unisexual through the atrophy of 
the perithecium, and the substitution for it of antheridial branches, are not uncommon; but another 
example of a different nature is sometimes found, and results from the partial atrophy of one member 
of the spore-pair. The failure of one member of a spore-pair to develop, was noted and figured in con- 
nection with Labouibenm inflafa in the Monograph, and has been seen in other instances. While, how- 
ever, such undeveloped individuals are, or appear to be, quite functionless, cases have been seen in which, 
although one member becomes normally developed, producing an antheridium and procarp, the other 
develops normally as far only as the production of the antheridium is concerned and shows not the 
slightest indication of any procarp. Such an instance is represented on Plate XLIX, figs. 1G-17, the 
two individuals being the products of the same spore-pair. The abnormal production of perithecia is 
seen 
Hi 
the subbasal cell and 
thus confirming the view taken by the writer as to the homologies of the receptacle in this genus 
