GERMINATION AND GROWTH. 141 



reproductive body, and most often on its convex side. Their 

 fecundity is exhausted with the plastic contents of the spore. 

 The corpuscles, when placed in the most favourable conditions, 

 have never given the least sign of vegetation ; they have also 

 remained for a long time in water without experiencing any 

 appreciable alteration. 



All the individuals of Dacrymyces deliquescent do not produce 

 these corpuscles in the same abundance ; those which bear the 

 most are recognizable by the pale tint of the reproductive dust 

 with which they are covered ; in others, where this dust preserves 

 its golden appearance, only a few corpuscles are found. The 

 spores which produce corpuscles do not appear at all apt to 

 germinate. On the other hand, multitudes of spores will germi- 

 nate which had not produced any corpuscles. Tulasne remarks 

 on this, that these observations would authorize us to think that 

 all spores, though perfectly identical to our eyes, have not, 

 without distinction, the same fate, nor doubtless the same nature ; 

 and, in the second place, that these two kinds of bodies, if they 

 are not always isolated, yet are most frequently met with on 

 distinct individuals. This author claims for the corpuscles in 

 question that they are spermatia, and thinks that their origin is 

 only so far unusual in that they proceed from veritable spores. 



The whole of the Gasteromycetes have as yet to be challenged 

 as to the mode and conditions of germination and development. 

 It is probable that these will not materially differ from those 

 which prevail in Hymenomycefes. 



The germination in j&£cidium has been followed out by Tulasne,* 

 either by placing the pseudospores in a drop of water, or confining 

 them in a moist atmosphere, or by placing the leaves on which 

 the JEcidium nourishes upon water. The pseudospores plunged 

 in water germinated more readily than the others. If the con- 

 ditions were favourable, germination would take place in a few 

 hours. JEcidium Hanunculacearum, D. 0., on leaves of figwort, 

 gives rarely more than one germinating filament, which soon 

 attains three times the length of the diameter of the pseudospore. 

 This filament generally remains simple, sometimes torulose, and 

 * Tulasne, "M&noire surles Ur£din&B." 



