398 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
proterandrous plants results in anereaenlg the percentage of self-pollinated plants, 
and i is a practice of doubtful value 
SMITH" has issued a bulletiar dealing primarily with fhe results of selection 
of ears which are placed high on the stalks and those which are placed low on the 
stalks, and showing that very material difference may be secured by five years’ 
selection. A comparison is then made between the two strains so produced in 
regard to qualities such as time of maturity, yield, etc. The results accord very 
well with the notion that ordinary varieties of corn are much hybridized, and 
that the selection results in a partial separation of the biotypes involved.— 
L 
Morphology and sexuality of Aspergillus and Ascophanus.—In Aspergillus 
repens, a form differing slightly in structure from Aspergillus herbariorum as 
described by Miss FRASER and Miss CHAMBERS,'? Miss DALE?3 describes another 
case of so-called reduced fertilization among the Ascomycetes. After a brief his- 
torical and systematic consideration of the species, she describes the multinucleate 
hyphae of the mycelium, from which arise the multinucleate conidia as apical 
swellings. The archicarp is initiated as a slender branch, which usually soon 
becomes regularly and closely coiled into a spiral. The regular occurrence of 
definite ascogonia and antheridia as figured by DEBary was rarely found, the 
antheridium often being absent. No convincing proof of a fusion of sexual organs, 
even when both were present, was discovered. Transverse walls, whose position 
and number vary considerably, appear in the archicarp either very early or at a 
much later stage. Ascogenous hyphae develop in some cases from all of the cells 
of the ascogonium. The investing hyphae show great variations in the time at 
which they arise, as well-developed ascogonia with ascogenous hyphae quite 
uninvested are often found. The young archicarp, which arises as a multinucleate 
ranch, possesses nuclei of about uniform size. Later variations in size of the 
nuclei appear, which Miss Daze accounts for chiefly by a fusion in pairs, although 
nuclei may perhaps grow. Such nuclear fusions are figured in all cells of the asco- 
gonium. Since no antheridium is believed to fuse with the oogonium, these nuclear 
fusions are held to be reduced sexual ones. These fusion nuclei pass into the 
ascogenous hyphae. In the development of the ascus, which arises from the penul- 
timate cell of a hypha, the usual nuclear fusions and subsequent triple divisions 
occur. Karyokinesis was not observed. 
UTTING'* finds in Ascophanus carneus still another case of reduced fertiliza- 
11 SMITH, L. H., The effect of selecti pon certain physical characters in the corn 
plant. Ill. harie Exper. Sta. Bull. 132:50~60. 1909. 
12 FRASER, Miss H. C. I., anp CHAMBERS, Miss H. S., The morphology of Asper- 
gillus herbariorum, Ann. Mycol. 5:419-431. 1907. 
13 Dace, Miss E., On the ae and cytology of Aspergillus repens DeBary. 
Ann. Mycol. 7:215-225. 
_ On the sexuality and development of the ascocarp of Ascopha- 
nus carneus Pers. Annals of Botany 23:399-417. 1909. 
