228 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [SEPTEMBER 
In C. Thaxteri the purpose of the cone and cylinder formations 
is not evident, for immediately succeeding the completion of the 
envelope there is a migration of the rods back to the center of the 
head, within which they form a smooth, more or less spherical 
mass, the membranes of the protuberances persisting as somewhat 
shrivelled and twisted or striated appendages, containing no rods 
except such occasional stragglers as may happen to have adhered to 
their inner surfaces. 
The bristly heads, without further morphological changes, then 
mature as cysts, which drop off almost as lightly as do the spore- 
like cysts of C. crocatus. Figs. 3, 4 or 7, 9, and 1 represent in 
sequence the stages that have been described. The course of 
development just outlined is entirely independent of variations in 
moisture, food supply, light, and temperature, so far as I have 
ever observed; always the formation of cones or cylinders on the 
surfaces of the heads, and their subsequent abandonment, the rods 
retreating over the route along which they came. The ripening of 
the head is completed by a movement of rods away from the short 
stalk, and a shrivelling or contraction of the membrane at that 
point, which thus explains in part the mode of dehiscence (fig. 1). 
The number of cysts, as already indicated, varies from one to 
several, usually 3-4, but sometimes there may be as many as 
20-30. Not infrequently fusions take place in the early stages 
between neighboring developing heads, as shown in fig. 2. When 
mature, the cysts are spherical or more commonly depressed spheres 
or thick disks, and average about 140 in extreme width, though 
varying from 65 to 165. These measurements include the 
appendages, which vary from 30 to 15 uw in length, and from ro to 
22 w in breadth at their bases. 
On germination of the cysts the rods swarm out through the 
basal scar of the membrane, leaving the bristly empty husk behind. 
Fig. 14 indicates the way in which this process takes place, and 
also shows that the appendages on the membrane have been sep- 
tated off in no way by an inner secondary membrane. 
Attention has already been called to the many variations 
exhibited by Chondromyces Thaxteri, a phenomenon shared to 
some extent by other species; variations in color, striking variations 
