46 FUNGI. 
growth; they all separate their inner space from the principal 
stem, by means of a cross partition placed close to it. All the 
ends, and also that of the principal stem, swell about the same 
time something like a bladder, and on the upper free half of 
each swelling appear again, simultaneously, several fine pro- 
tuberances, close together, which quickly grow to little oval 
bladders filled with protoplasm, and resting on their bearers 
with a sub-sessile, pedicellate, narrow basis, and which at length 
separate themselves through a partition as in Aspergillus. The 
detached cells are the conidia of our fungus; only one is formed 
on each stalk. When the formation is completed in the whole 
of the panicle, the little branches which compose it are de- 
prived of their protoplasm in favour of the conidia; it is the 
same with the under end of the principal stem, the limits of 
which are marked by a eross partition. The delicate wall of 
these parts shrinks up until itis unrecognizable ; all the conidia 
of the panicle approach one another to form an irregular grape- 
like bunch, which rests loosely on the bearer, and from which 
it easily falls away as dust. If they be brought into water they 
fall off immediately ; only the empty, shrivelled, delicate skins 
are to be found on the branch which bore them, and the places 
on which they are fixed to the principal stem clearly appear as 
round circumscribed hilums, generally rather arched towards 
the exterior. The development of the main stem is not ended 
here. It remains solid and filled with protoplasm as far as the 
portion which forms the end through its conidia. Its end, 
which is to be found among these pieces, becomes pointed after 
the ripening of the first panicle, pushes the end of the shrivelled 
member on one side, and grows to the same length as the 
height of one or two panicles, and then remains still, to form a 
second panicle similar to the first. This is later equally per- 
foliated as the first, then a third follows, and thus a large 
number of panicles are produced after and over one another on 
the same stem. In perfect specimens, every perfoliated panicle 
hangs loosely to its original place on the surface of the stem, 
until by shaking or the access of water to it, it falls immediately 
into the single conidia, or the remains of branches, and the 
