VOLUME LXV NUMBER 3 
THE 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE 
MARCH 17978 
SEXUALITY IN RHIZINA UNDULATA FRIES 
HARRY MortToN FITZPATRICK 
(WITH PLATES III AND IV) 
Although in recent years a considerable number of papers have 
appeared dealing with the phenomena of sexuality in the Ascomy- 
cetes, certain of the natural orders in this group have received little 
attention. In the Discomycetes practically all the species which 
have been investigated are members of the Pezizales, and few facts 
are available concerning the sexual process in representatives of 
any other order. Our knowledge of the morphology of the sexual 
organs and the behavior of the sex nuclei in the Helvellales is par- 
ticularly meager. The following brief discussion of the important 
papers which have been published on the cytes of these fungi 
will serve to emphasize this fact. 
Brown (11) describes the development of the ascocarp in two 
species of Leotia. In L. lubrica, at the base of the youngest fruit- 
body sectioned, he discovered a large, vacuolated cell having the 
appearance of an emptied ascogonium. From this cell he found 
arising a number of hyphae of larger diameter than the other hyphae 
of the ascocarp. These larger hyphae were empty, and, although 
they could not be followed for any great distance, they seemed to be 
connected higher in the fruit-body with the ascogenous hyphae. 
He apparently found evidences of this ascogonium-like structure in 
only one specimen, since he states nothing to the contrary, and does 
not describe other stages in its development. He gives no data 
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