1900 | FERTILIZATION OF ALBUGO CANDIDA 305 
cal phenomenon exhibited in this act of fertilization. The 
descriptions of Léger (95) and Dangeard and Léger (94) pre- 
sent some interesting conditions, which, however, are very diffi- 
cult to understand in the light of generally accepted theories 
of fertilization, and certainly are not at present thoroughly 
explained. 
When the term gametes was first applied to the fusing cells 
that formed the zygospore of a mould, it was probably in the 
belief that these were sexual elements pure and simple, homol- 
ogous with other sexual cells, such as the oospheres and sperms 
of the alge, the fusing cells in forms of the Conjugatae, or the 
members of a copulating pair of swarm spores. The term 
gamete had a strict morphological significance implying general 
homologies, in most cases very close, in other instances more 
remote, or possibly only a relationship through some earlier 
non-sexual form of spore. 
At present the gamete probably stands in the minds of most 
botanists as a morphological unit, with a structure essentially 
the same in all realms of biology. The gamete isa uninucleate 
sexual body, with a greater or less amount of cytoplasm which 
may be very much specialized, as is illustrated in the degree of 
differentiation shown by the egg and the sperm. 
The question that must suggest itself to many is the correct 
ness of the use of the term gamete, with its implied homologies, 
when designating the fusing sexual elements in a number of 
Phycomycetes. To state the difficulty concretely: are the mul- 
tinucleate cells that fuse to form the zygospore of the Mucorales, 
the antheridial tubes and oospheres of the Peronsporales and 
Saprolegniales, homologous with the simpler sexual elements of 
the Monoblepharales and Chytridiales, and the gametes of the 
alge? Although we know practically nothing about the cy tol- 
ogy of these last two groups of fungi, nevertheless the studies 
of Thaxter (95) on Monoblepharis and the structure of the 
Chytridiales indicate much simpler conditions than appear in the 
Mucorales, Peronosporales, and Saprolegniales. They probably 
agree in all essentials with the sexual processes of the alge. 
