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1906] OVERTON—THECOTHEUS PELLETIERI 467 
wet they are therefore plainly visible to the naked eye. A distincy 
thin excipulum, or lateral boundary of vegetative hyphae, surrounds 
the hymenium (fig. 3). This excipulum is densely covered with 
short, blunt ends of protruding vegetative hyphae, which give a hairy 
or warty appearance to its surface. The sterile tissue of the secondary 
mycelium extends outward and downward to form a pseudo-parenchy- 
matous skirt-like structure, which also extends along the substratum 
beneath the hypothecium. This lower layer becomes adjusted to 
the irregularities of the substratum, from which numerous hyphae 
enter the fructification. The equilibrium of the whole fruit body is 
maintained by means of this much broadened pseudo-parenchy- 
matous base (fig. 3). 
The apothecia are at first globular or cylindrical, later becoming 
broadened, discoid, and somewhat biscuit-shaped (fig. 2). The 
asci are roughly cylindrical in form, about 220 35H, their greatest 
diameter being near the top. Each ascus contains thirty-two ellip- 
soidal, slightly colored spores, each about 17.5% 28#, which are 
discharged through a small terminal pore. This pore is at first 
covered by a small cap or operculum, bounded by a thickened ring in 
the wall of the ascus where the cover breaks off (fig. 16). The asci 
develop from the subhymenium successively; each fruit body thus 
contains asci and spores in all stages of development. Numerous long 
and slender septate paraphyses, about 360 long, arising from the 
hypothecium, are thickly packed among the asci. At the surface 
each paraphysis has a somewhat swollen protruding tip (figs. 2, 3)- 
The mature spore contains a single nucleus in a mass of very densely 
granular protoplasm (fig. 15). The thin, very pale exospore is corru- 
gated on its outer surface, much like many other spores of the Asco- 
bolaceae. There is a passage through this exospore at each end, 
as well as through the thick hyaline endospore, to form what is appar- 
ently a terminal germinal pore. The spores are not shot out of the 
asci, but appear to be squeezed out by turgor, together with the 
lateral pressure exerted by the turgor of the neighboring asci and 
paraphyses. They are to be found as a dust on the surface of the 
apothecium, often adhering in masses. Possibly in consequence of 
the smallness of the terminal aperture of the ascus the spores are not 
projected or discharged violently. This condition is not general 
