1896 ] CERTAIN PYRENOMYCETOUS FUNGI 307 
nies were cut out from the Petri dishes, dropped for a few min- 
utes into the mercuric chloride and then allowed to wash in 
running water over night or at least for six to eight hours. In 
this process much of the agar was washed away, but the colonies 
were sufficiently compact to hold themselves together. They 
were then passed through successive alcohols, infiltrated and 
embedded in collodion, and cut with a microtome in sections 
from 64 to 124 thick. No other fixative tried seemed to leave 
the material so susceptible to stains as the mercuric chloride. 
Among others used may be mentioned chromic acid, Flemming’s 
stronger solution, Hermann’s solution, and Fish’s picro-aceto- 
sublimate. The solutions of Flemming and Hermann were per- 
haps equally good when cleared with hydrogen peroxide, but 
without this additional trouble the sections so fixed were use- 
less because of the discoloration of the protoplasm. With 
Fish’s mixture some very good sections were prepared, but they 
were in no way superior to those fixed in the more simple cor- 
rosive sublimate. 
In all the earlier part of the work the sections were stained 
with Mayer’s carmalum. This produced no differentiation of 
nuclear structures, and much time was spent in experimenting 
with various stains and combinations of stains in the hope of get- 
ting a color differentiation. This was not accomplished, but in the 
later work upon nuclei Hermann’s safranin-gentian-violet method 
as given by Zimmerman (17) was employed with very satisfactory 
results. Gjuarsin’s methods as given in his article on Dis- 
comycetes were also found valuable. 
The greater part of the observations were made with a Bausch 
and Lomb microscope, one-twelfth inch objective and one inch 
ocular, but for nuclear study this was found insufficient, and a 
Zeiss instrument with a one-twelfth inch objective and no. 8— 
Ocular was employed. | 
TEICHOSPORA. 
This fungus was found growing upon dead branches of oak 
m the vicinity of Ithaca, N. Y., late in November 1895. The 
