GERMINATION AND GROWTH. 161 
proof of the existence of two special membranes, and so suppose 
that the germinative cell is the continuation of the internal 
membrane, the external membrane alone being susceptible of 
absorbing the liquids, at least with a certain rapidity.” 
In other Discomycetes germination takes place in a similar 
manner. Boudier* narrates that in Ascobolus, when once the 
spore reaches a favourable place, if the circumstances are good, 
i.e., if the temperature is sufficiently high and the moisture 
sufficient, it will germinate. The time necessary for this pur- 
pose is variable, some hours sufficing for some 
species; those of A. viridis, for example, germi- 
nate in eight or ten hours, doubtless because, 
being terrestrial, it has in consequence less heat. 
The spore slightly augments in size, then opens, 
generally at one or other extremity, sometimes at 
two, or at any point on its surface, in order to 
pass the mycelium tubes. At first simple, with- 
out septa, and granular in the interior, above 
all at the extremity, these tubes, the rudiment of 
the mycelium, are not long in elongating, in 
branching, and later in having partitions. These 
filaments are always colourless, only the spore 
may be coloured, or not. Coemans has described 
them as giving rise to two kinds of conidia,} the Fic. 94. — Spori- 
one having the form of Zurula, when they give G™ of Ascobolus 
germinating. 
rise to continuous filaments, the other in the form 
of Penicillium, when they give birth to partitioned filaments. 
De Seynes could never obtain this result. Many times he had seen 
the Penicillium glaucum invade his sowings, but he feels confident 
that it had nothing to do with the Ascobolus. M. Worouint 
has detailed some observations on the sexual phenomena which 
he has observed in Ascobolus and Peziza, and so far as the scole- 
cite is concerned these have been confirmed by M. Boudier. 
ad 
* Boudier, ‘‘ Mémoire sur ]’Ascoboles,” pt. i. iv. f, 13-15. 
+ Coemans, ‘‘ Spicilége Mycologique,” i. p. 6. 
+ Woronin, ‘‘Abhandlungen der Senchenbergischen Naturfor. Gesellschaft” 
(1865), p. 333. 
