312 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [OCTOBER 
cium is nearly or quite full grown. When the growing perithe- 
cium has attained a little more than half the normal diameter of 
the mature fruit there may be seen at its center an oval sac con- 
taining a single nucleus and filled with densely granular proto- 
plasm which stains very deeply. This sac is simply a swollen 
cell of the interior of the sphere. Simultaneously with its 
appearance a part of the loose parenchymatous tissue surround- 
ing it breaks down so that the young ascus lies in a more or less 
disorganized, gelatinous mass. Very soon the other asci appear 
one by one. In many cases the sections showed two large ovoid 
sacs lying side by side and almost filling the interior of the per- 
ithecium. The later asci developed as the growth of the sphere 
made room for them. 
Earlier investigators have attempted to find the connection 
between the origin of the asci and a supposed fertilized archi- 
carp (see Woronin, De Bary, and Hartig, Z. c.). In this case there 
exists no probability of a process of fertilization. In many cases 
the entire Sporocarp may be traced from a single cell around 
which no other filaments are present even to take part in the 
construction of the wall, and in cases where extraneous filaments 
are applied to the archicarp it happens after several divisions of 
the original cell have taken place. If we consider the single 
swollen cell in the mycelium as the mother cell of the _— 
perithecium it is a question of some interest what determine 
which of the daughter cells become asci and which are disorgat- 
ized. . Harper ( 5) finds in Sphzrotheca a structure consisting of 
from five to seven cells, arising directly from the fertilized sei 
Carp, anda certain one of these containing two nuclei and giving 
origin to the ascus. We might consider the entire cellular stu 
ture of the fruit of Teichospora homologous with this five , 
seven-celled growth in Spherotheca, in which case we shou 
expect to find in the former certain binucleated cells functio™ 
ing as mother cells of the asci. This may indeed be true e 
the observations so far made do not warrant such a statement. 
It is only in exceptional cases that the nuclei in these cells 
be distinguished at all, on account of the density of the proto- 
