314 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [May 
original size. At the same time the refractive ring disappears, 
-and the protoplasm becomes distinctly granular and vacuolate. 
The wall on one side then seems to undergo a change. It 
becomes thin and delicate, until it can scarcely be distinguished, 
finally bulging out in the form of a short stout germ tube, whose | 
diameter nearly equals the length of the spore (fig. 3). The 
rest of the spore membrane remains as a sort of cap over the 
end of the germ-tube. The entire protoplasm of the spore is 
used in the formation of this first germ tube. The formation of 
a second similar one would seem impossible, and was never 
observed. When this primary germ tube has attained a length 
about equal to the diameter of the spore, it sends out two 
branches from opposite sides of its broad terminal portion. This 
formation of a primary tube before the appearance of true 
hyphae is not unlike the mode of germination of the gonidia of 
Completoria complens by means of a proembryo, as described by 
Professor Atkinson ;? or it may be compared to the extrusion of 
the endospore in Ceratostoma brevirostre before the formation of a 
true mycelium, as described and figured by Miss Nichols.3 The 
first mycelial branches are thin, about 3-4 in diameter, and 
elongate rapidly, usually in opposite directions (fig. 4). The 
protoplasm in the older parts of the tubes is rather coarsely 
granular, with many irregular indistinct vacuoles. Near the 
growing portion it is homogenous, and at the tips perfectly 
hyaline. Numerous lateral branches soon arise in a very irregu- 
lar manner from the main hyphae, being directed at a more OF 
less acute angle to them (fig. 5). The branches have the same 
general appearance as the threads from which they arise, and 
equal them in diameter, and all hyphae of the mycelium contain 
numerous septa. 
At the end of four days the mycelium has developed a well 
defined compact colony about 5™™ in diameter, with an eve? 
margin. The colony consists of a mass of threads so wedged : 
? Damping-off. Cornell Univ. Exp. Sta. Bull. 94: 233-272. pls. 6. 1895. 
3 The morphology and development of certain pyrenomycetous fungi. 
22 : 301-328. Als. 3. 1896. 
Bot. GAZ- 
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