— lis — 



an extreme length, are divided, at first, by rare transversal walls 

 and then begin to branch profusely (fig. 1). As to the moucilaginous 

 appendages of the spores, tiiey gradually dissolve. 



The mycehum, when transplanted into cups with hard, horse- 

 dung medium, grew^ quickly over the whole substratum, and already 

 on the fifth or sixth day of infection, one could perceive among 

 the strongly ramified, thin hyphae^a large quantity of young asco- 

 gonia, like spiral coiled threads. These ascogonia consist, at this 

 stage of development, of two to three cells (fig. 2), but soon the- 

 quantity of the latter distinctly increases. By their structure, they 

 very much resemble the ascogonium of the Aspergillus and still 

 more that of the Chaetomium. The spiral is generally very strongly 

 coiled. It forms one or two loops, grows freely or intwines the 

 sidebranch of the hyphae. All the cells of a young ascogonium are 

 approximately of equal size. There are no specially large cells, 

 Avhich differ by tlieir dimensions from the others, as can be obser- 

 ved in some multicellular ascogonia, for instance of Ascobolus. 



In consequence of the tangled disposition of the spiral coils and 

 formation of loops, study at this stage of development is extremely 

 difficult. It was often only possible to analyze the structure of the 

 latter after having succeeded in changing its position and exami- 

 ning it from several sides, tracing on paper the respective positions 

 and afterwards comparing the drawings. 



It appears the informations given by Woronin, concerning the 

 early stages of the development of Podospora, differ from the 

 structure of young ascogonia, here described. Instead of one large 

 spherical cell, here we see a multicellular coiled thread. If one 

 takes into consideration the small dimensions of a young ascogo- 

 nium, which can be examined well only by the help of the immer- 

 sion objective^ which was not used in the sixties, the difference of 

 opinion with Woronin can be explained, by the inferiority of the 

 optical instruments in his time. It is probable, that he took for the 

 spherical cell, the whole spiral. Being strongly coiled, the latter 

 could produce the impression of one cell. Moreover Woronin had 

 not, e\idently, enough material, for he indicates that the spherical 

 cells were rare and he found them with great difficulty. 



Soon after the formation of young ascogonia, seven or eight days 

 alter infection of the medium, one can easily distinguish, Avithout 



