35 8 - BOTANICAL GAZETTE [October 



monosporic sporangiola, if we may so call them, is wide and 

 abrupt. 



In the type represented by Cunninghamella it has been assumed 

 that sporangia of the normal type are wholly lacking; but although 

 none has been seen by persons who have cultivated any of the 

 three described species of this genus, it by no means follows that 

 they may not exist. In Choanephora, where they are known to 

 occur, it is often extremely difficult to obtain them, unless under 

 special conditions of cultivation; and in the case of C. cucurbitarum y 

 for example, one might continue cultures under ordinary conditions 

 for an indefinite period without ever obtaining any but the conidial 

 form. On the other hand, at least one species of Choanephora 

 is known to the writer, which was isolated by Blakeslee during his 

 investigations on the Mucorales, and has never been seen to pro- 

 duce anything but normal sporangia with the typical appendiculate 

 spores of this genus, although it was kept in cultivation for a period 

 of years. As in this instance it cannot be assumed that "conidia" 

 do not exist, so also in the case of Cunninghamella it remains to 

 be determined whether sporangia of some sort are not occasionally 

 produced under special conditions. In whatever way this ques- 

 tion may be settled by further investigation, it is evident that the 



"conidia" of this genus, which are also borne on heads having the 

 characteristics of the form-genus Oedocephalum, may, like those of 

 Choanephora, and with equal plausibility, be considered homologous 

 with the sporangiola of the form under consideration. 



In a recent paper on the reproduction of the Mucorales, Moreau 

 (Le Botaniste 13: nos. 1-3) has advanced the view that heads 

 of the Oedocephalum type represent sporangia which have, as it 

 were, been turned inside out; and that the sporangiospores thus 

 exogenously produced are to be regarded as conidia. He would 

 then trace to the sporangium thus metamorphosed all Oedocephalum 

 conditions, isolated instances of which are known to occur among 

 the higher fungi, Polyporus annosus, Corticium effuscatum in the 

 Basidiomycetes, and species of Aleuria among the Discomycetes. 

 The spores endogenously formed in the clavate or cylindrical 

 bodies, which in Syncephalastrum replace the single spores of 

 Cunninghamella, Moreau also regards as conidia, and not as 



