On the Bed Mould of Barley. Bij C. G. Matthews. 325 



Shortly after the flattening down of the tuft of mould a pink 

 dust was perceived in minute patches on the whitish surface. 

 On examination this was found to consist of clusters of crescent- 

 shaped spores (fig. 3), attached by their pointed ends so as to form 

 fasces, these again being attached to the plasma by short irregular 

 hyphae. On touching or wetting, the arrangement is at once 

 disturbed, and the crescents fallmg loose, are then seen to be of 

 varying size. 



The crescents are doubtless developed by sprouting at the 

 extremities of short hyphse, developed on the flattened surface of 

 the mould-growth, and not from spores discharged from an ascus 

 (for as yet no kind of ascus had been seen), though observations 

 made at a further stage in the development of the mould indicated 

 that this in a limited way was quite possible. 



Sometimes the pink patches spoken of became moistened by the 

 condensation of minute drops of water on the surface of the mould, 

 causing a reddish-orange coloured spot to be formed consisting of a 

 mass of the crescent bodies in a resting state. From these spores, 

 fresh growths of the mould could be obtained by sowing on a suit- 

 able nutrient surface. The colouring matter was found to be in the 

 material surrounding the crescent spores, which are in most cases 

 colourless, though sometimes they are faintly tinged with colour. 

 The formation of these crescent- or spindle-shaped bodies thus con- 

 stitutes a second kind of sporulation, and we may now consider the 

 way in which they reproduce the original mould, for this they are 

 capable of doing, thus differing from the bodies produced in the 

 first or pseudo-sporulation. 



Some of the pink-dust patches or reddish-orange spots were 

 removed and placed in a small quantity of water ; the crescent spores 

 sink slowly to the bottom of the containing vessel, and by careful 

 decantation can be separated from adherent matters, the water 

 being renewed once or twice, the spores being finally left in contact 

 with pure distdled water in a covered vessel and examined daily. 

 Interesting changes occurred, for in the absence of nutriment, 

 some of the spores divided at the septa (fig. 4), in some 

 cases a short length of tube, or an abortive hypha was formed 

 between two segments (a, a, a) or a swelling of some of the seg- 

 ments took place (b, h) distorting the crescent. In the meantime 

 other of the crescent spores began to throw out hyphae ; some of the 

 segments even doing the same (fig, 5). Shortly after these observa- 

 tions the water was pom-ed ofi' and the germinating spores were 

 put on fresh plasma, when an active reproduction of the red mould 

 shortly took place. 



Several growths of the mould were allowed to go on for some 

 few weeks, and were subjected to frequent examination, remaining at 

 the same time free from the invasion of other moulds ; for on a 



