— 135 — 



always be observed, without excepting P. fimiseda, also in the 

 ascogenous hyphae (fig. 8, 29). 



If sometimes it is not very clearly expressed at the very base of 

 the hyphae, yet, a little farther from the beginning of the same, 

 such a disposition of the nuclei cannot be doubted. They are quite 

 definitely ranged in pairs. Notwithstanding this it is scarcely pos- 

 sible here to see a direct connection of pairing of the nuclei lying 

 in the asogonium and the ascogenous hyphae, because in the cells 

 of the ascogonium, which have already begun the formation of 

 ascogenous hyphae, one does not notice this pairing of nuclei, they 

 generally lie singly (fig. 25, 44). We must therefore admit that in 

 Podospora and Sordaria a sort of interruption in the pairing of 

 nuclei takes place, it is infringed, and the second connection of 

 two nuclei, in the ascogenous hyphae, can be considered as a new- 

 phenomenon, which stands in no direct relation to the first pheno- 

 menon, where the cause, one must suppose, is the simple multipli- 

 cation of nuclei. 



The fact that we can always see in the ascogonia part of the 

 nuclei, lying in pairs (in young ascogonia not yet interlaced by 

 covering hyphae, as well as in the more mature perithecia, nearly 

 ready for formation of the ascogenous hyphae, where the cells of 

 the ascogonium and the nuclei have attained considerable dimen- 

 sions) show, as we supposed, that this dividing of nuclei proceeds 

 Avithout interruption in all stages of growth. Besides the direct 

 indications, which one has succeeded in obtaining while studying 

 P. curvula, this point of view, of a simple multiplication of the 

 nuclei, is confirmed also by other indirect proofs of the same multi- 

 plication. One can for instance indicate the apparent increase of the 

 number of nuclei in the cells of the ascogonium, at more mature 

 stages of development, in comparison with the young ones, espe- 

 cially evident in the ascogonium with such an insignificant quantity 

 of the nuclei as in P. curvula and P. anserina. Comparing fig. 20 

 with fig. 23 we ascertain the same. Lastly the circumstance that 

 one did not succeed in noting such connected nuclei in P. fimi- 

 seda also speaks in favour of this supposition. The ascogonium here 

 from the beginning contains a great number of nuclei and therefore 

 the process of their dividing does not proceed so intensely. It is, 

 probably, brought to a minimum. 



