THE LARCH CANKER 39 
and the short axis 9-104. Each contains, when ripe, a single 
central nucleus and a large hyaline vacuole, containing 
glycogen, on each side of it, lying with it in the long axis 
of the spore. The wall is thin, but appears with a double 
contour under a D objective. The spores are ejected by 
a sudden squirt action to a height of about half an inch, 
and after ejection the top portion of the ascus can be seen 
to be bent back as in fig. 19. 
The apex of the ascus, at any rate in my specimens, does 
not turn blue ‘with iodine. As some authors have described 
this as a feature of the fungus, it is apparently variable in 
the species. 
The paraphyses (fig. 18, p) are thin hyphae which are 
found between the asci. They are unseptate and very fine, 
1-5-2 in diameter, and about 30. longer than the asci. 
The apices are scarcely perceptibly swollen, but they tend 
to bend over the asci and protect them. When kept in 
a saturated chamber the whole apothecium often becomes 
filed with a drop of water. This is probably secreted by 
the paraphyses, and as the secretion presumably continues 
in a dry atmosphere also, it may serve by evaporation to 
moisten the air round the asci and save them from drying up. 
Fresh asci continue to be formed for a long time. They 
appear as short swollen hyphae growing up from the sub- 
hymenial layer, but ascospores cannot be traced in them 
until they are fully grown. 
The margin of the apothecium is covered by stiff bristle- 
like hyphae, which, as described on p. 35, have numerous 
very finé warts on their walls. Anderson (1902) describes 
these warts as crystals of calcium oxalate. But I find that 
they do not dissolve in acetic acid or in dilute sulphuric 
or nitric acid. I am inclined to regard them, therefore, as 
outgrowths of the wall substance. 
The same general description applies to the apothecia 
found on dead branches. These are, however, smaller, and 
for their dimensions the reader is referred to p. 79. 
Spermogonia (fig. 18, B, c). The spermogonia are also 
formed on the mycelial cushions, and may be found on the 
