Igtt] BROW N—LACHNEA SCUTELLATA 285 
or antepenultimate cell may give rise to a hook, may be repeated 
many times, so that a large number of asci may be formed finally 
from a single hypha. Even in young ascocarps, five or six hooks 
may frequently be seen joined together in various ways, and if it 
were possible to follow a hypha for a considerable distance, the 
above number would of course be greatly increased. 
The significance of these phenomena has been discussed in 
a previous paper on Leotia and Geoglossum (BROWN 6), in which 
genera they also occur. 
As new hooks are successively developed from older ones, that 
part of the ascogenous hypha which connects the successive hooks, 
as well as the older parts of the hypha, become vacuolated to 
such an extent that no cytoplasm can be seen in them. Despite 
this fact, new hooks and asci are formed quite rapidly. It seems 
probable, therefore, as HARPER (22) suggests, that the developing 
asci obtain their nutrient material from the paraphyses, which are 
in contact with them, by transfusion through the walls. 
The multiplication of the number of hooks gradually raises 
the level at which asci are formed. At the same time, the level 
at which the paraphyses come off is also raised by the formation 
of new ones from the basal portion of older ones and from storage 
cells which are being continually formed at a higher level. As 
growth continues and the hymenium rises higher and higher, the 
subhymenial layer is increased in height by the addition of the 
older parts of the hymenium, which are gradually left behind. 
ile the hymenium is thus being raised, it also increases in 
diameter. As has already been described, the cells between the 
hymenium and cortex continually produce new cells which give 
rise to paraphyses around the margin of the hymenium. At the 
Same time, hooks formed from the ultimate or penultimate cells 
of older ones grow in among the paraphyses. Owing to the pro- 
cesses described above, an ascocarp, after it assumes its mature 
form, may increase greatly in both height and diameter. 
When the two nuclei which fuse to form the primary nucleus 
of the ascus are in the process of fusion, they contain compara- 
tively little chromatin. This is scattered somewhat irregularly 
on linin fibers, but shows an approach to the spireme condition 
