78 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
more the time occupied by the fall of the starch grains through the cell fluids 
to the new position, which may be designated as the migration time, is shown 
to be usually less than half the presentation time. The migration time may 
be diminished by repeated mechanical jarring, in which case the presentation 
time is correspondingly diminished. It seems probable to the reviewer that 
subjecting plants to centrifugal action might reduce the migration time toa 
minimum and so demonstrate more clearly this relation.—C. R. B 
THE SEXUAL ORGANS and the development of the ascocarp of Monascus 
are described by Barker3* in a paper of especial interest in relation to the 
problems connected with coenogametes among the Phycomycetes and 
Ascomycetes. A filament develops terminally an antheridium. Immediately 
below this cell the ascogonium is formed, whose growth pushes the anther- 
idium to one side. Both sexual organs are multinucleate (coenogametes). 
They fuse by means of a small process put forth from the antheridium. 
After fertilization the ascogonium becomes divided by a cross wall, the ante- 
rior small cell remaining in connection with the antheridium, and the pos- 
terior, named the ‘central cell,” developing the ascocarp. 
After fertilization the central cell becomes invested by a growth of hyphae _ 
from below. The central cell now increases greatly in size, and the next 
change is the development of ascogenous hyphae in a little depression at one 
side of the central cell. The ascogenous hyphae gradually fill the interior 
of the ascocarp, eventually forming small eight-spored asci. The central cell 
plays a curious part in the later developments of the ascocarp. The growth 
of the ascogenous filaments so presses upon it as to force its wall inward, 
giving it the shape of a bowl. The ascogenous hyphae thus appear as an 
internal development, but their origin is plainly external. Later the contents 
of the central cell disappear, and its walls become cutinized, so that they 
actually form a hollow sphere around the ascogenous hyphae. Since the 
latter break down with the ripening of the spores, the mature ascocarp has 
the appearance of a simple sporangiumlike structure, which it is not. 
Barker regards Monascus as a very lowly ascomycete, with relationships 
rather nearer to the Gymnoascales than to any other group. A number of 
points in his general discussion are treated in a note that follows my paper 
on Oogenesis in Saprolegnia.*— B. M. Davis. 
3* BARKER, B. T. P., The morphology and development of the ascocarp in Monas- 
cus. Ann. Bot. 17: 167-236. pls. 12, 13. 1903. 
# Bot. GAZ. 35: 344. 1903. 
