232 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
more than any other investigator, has noted also (’84; p. 41) that the © 
hyphae of Conidiobolus, which grows parasitically on Exidia and 
similar fungi contain many nuclei; but he contributes no comment 
on the internal structure of Empusa, whose external characters and 
development he has described in great detail. 
CavaRA next published (’99) some cytological observations on 
Empusa muscae, which was shown to have multinucleate conidia, 
and on Entomophihora Delpiniana, with multinucleate conidia; and 
he showed the importance of this character in delimiting the groups 
of the Entomophthoreae, a point with which I heartily agree. But 
Cavara’s account of the division of the nuclei in these two forms by 
simple fragmentation is without doubt incorrect, as is plain from the 
complicated method described in the present paper. 
Finally, GALLAUD (:05) has quite recently studied a form, Dela- 
croixia, apparently similar in habit to Conidiobolus, whose mycelium 
as well as conidia contain numerous small nuclei. 
The application of refined technique to the study of the cytology 
of these organisms has resulted in but one paper—that by FarrR- 
CHILD (’97) on Basidiobolus—which deals exhaustively with the 
nuclear details. Erpam (’86), who first discovered Basidiobolus and 
figured its uninucleate cells, and LoEWENTHAL (:03), both working 
with unsectioned material, and quite recently WoycickI (:04), have 
also contributed certain cytological observations in their studies on 
this form. 
Basidiobolus shows, as we shall see, little resemblance cytologi- 
cally to Empusa, and RacrBorskI (’96) contends that it should not be 
included in the Entomophthoreae. However, since this form is gen- 
erally considered in connection with the group, it seems best to review 
at this time FAIRCHILD’s account of the nuclear division in Basidio- 
bolus. This author has described in great detail the peculiar division 
by which the two small beak-cells are cut off from the adjoining gametes. 
The division of the nuclei in these beaks bears little resemblance to that 
in Empusa, nor, indeed, to the process in any other thallophyte so far 
described; it rather resembles, according to FAIRCHILD, that in higher 
plants, in that a cell-wall is laid down through the instrumentality of 
a cell-plate. During the prophases of division, the nucleole dis- 
appears, and the author thinks it is probably used to form spindle 
wacniae 
