47° > BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
the asci develop. So far as I have been able to observe, asci were 
never developed from the terminal cell, or from the third cell from 
the tip, although either condition may possibly occur. Thecotheus 
certainly does not contain a system of ascogenous hyphae, each cell of 
which is a synkaryon, as described for Galactinia and Pustularia 
vesiculosa. 
In Thecotheus the subterminal cell of an ascogenous hypha 
arches up to form the young ascus. The two nuclei apparently fuse 
to form the ascus nucleus (jig. 4). The young club-shaped ascus 
is filled with a dense finely granular vacuolated protoplasm, in which 
are situated numerous deeply staining extranuclear granules, prob- 
ably the metachromatic granules of GUILLIERMOND (:03), which 
have also been observed and described by other authors. The 
fusion nucleus greatly enlarges as the ascus grows, thus maintaining 
a definite nucleo-cytoplasmic relationship, as described by HARPER 
(:05). Within the nucleus chromatic filaments are organized, which 
give the appearance of a loose spirem. Division stages were not 
observed, but, so far as I have been able to find, the nuclear structures 
are essentially the same as have already been many times described. 
The young ascus, which elongates rapidly, crowding up into the 
hymenium, is somewhat broadened at its tip, gradually narrowing 
toward the base. The protoplasm, packed in the tip, is coarse and 
granular (fig. 7). A spore region is organized about the nucleus. A 
large region, in which the protoplasm is very foamy, is present both 
above and below the central denser sporeplasm. The ascus increases 
still more in size, the denser regions at the apex and about the nucleus 
becoming still more sharply separated by the large vacuolated space 
(fig. 8). A peripheral layer of denser protoplasm connects the apical 
and central regions. The distinction of central and apical regions 
and the two large vacuolated spaces with foamy protoplasm persist 
throughout the process of spore formation (figs. 8-12). The primary 
ascus nucleus divides rapidly by three successive divisions to form 
eight free nuclei. During these divisions there is a gradual decrease 
in the size of the nuclei, as has also been observed in other asci. In 
jig. 10 it will be seen that each of the eight nuclei are very small 
compared with the nuclei represented in figs. 7 and 8. From the 
abundant stages found in the conditions represented in fig. ro, I am 
