a ell 
SRE 
1901] GERMINATION OF SPORES 61 
distinguish between a medium for germination and a growth 
medium. Spores of this fungus, caught with all possible sterili- 
zation precautions, were germinated on bean decoctions in flask 
cultures. About eight hours after the sowing, the liquid was 
filtered off in a sterile filter, and the collected mass of germi- 
nated spores was removed by a needle to a second filter. Here 
the spores were washed, and finally transferred to a flask of 
sterile water. In the latter they remained two days, the water 
being then poured off and the standard nutrient salt solution 
added. Growth proceeded gradually, and at the end of one 
month there was a thick mat covering the bottom of the flask, 
as if with a circular piece of canton flannel. With all of the pre- 
cautions observed, and by a comparison of the mycelium, this must 
be taken to justify the belief that we may here deal with a case in 
which a medium failing to stimulate to germination may yet 
afford growth. Bean decoction, moreover, is a better growth 
medium, and it would seem that the stimulus to germination 
would be a food stimulus. Nevertheless, the addition of pep- 
tone to the standard nutrient salt solution also gave no germina- 
tion, and if the stimulus is that of a food, it must be considered 
in the class of peculiar foods. 
Some other results, scarcely comparable to the above, may, 
however, be mentioned at this place. Janczewski* has deter- 
mined that Ascobolus furfuraceus, a plant growing normally on the 
dung of herbivorous animals, could only be prepared for germi- 
nation by being passed through the digestive tract of such ani- 
mals. White rabbits were the animals used in his experiments. 
We have here evidently a case in which the spore is immediately 
capable of germination provided it may be first acted upon chemi- 
cally or otherwise, so that it is rendered capable of using the 
stimulus of the medium on which it normally grows. 
DeBary” also found that Onygena corvina, growing on the 
feathers of birds of prey, seemed to require a particular stimulus 
*6 JANCZEWSKI : Morphologische Untersuchungen iiber Ascobolus furfuraceus. 
Bot. Zeit. 29: 257-262, 1870. 
” DEBary, A.: op. c. pp. 376-377. 
