92 DIVISION I.—- GENERAL MORPHOLOGY, 
upwards to a height of 1-2 cm., in Exoascus Pruni of 1 cm.; in the strongly 
- puffing Fungi, such as Peziza vesiculosa, P. Acetabulum, Helvella crispa, and Asco- 
bolus furfuraceus, they are thrown to a distance of more than 4 cm., in Sordaria 
fimiseda, according to Woronin, they travel 15 cm., in the smaller species of this genus 
about 2 cm., in Rhytisma acerinum only a few millimetres. The movements in the 
act of puffing in large hymenia were said by Desmazieres to produce an audible 
sound, but this has been doubted by recent observers ; I have myself however heard 
a very perceptible hissing noise produced by strong specimens of Peziza Acetabulum 
and Helvella crispa. 
The peculiar features in the old genus Ascobolus (including Saccobolus and others), 
which led to many false and even strange notions, are connected with the large size 
of the asci, the great prominence above the surface of the hymenium at the period 
of maturity, and the regular periodicity in their ripening and in puffing’. Coemans 
has given us a full account of how a number of asci ripen and eject their spores daily 
for several days together, when the hymenium has reached 
a certain point of development. The asci in consequence 
of their expansion begin to appear above the surface of the 
hymenium towards evening and continue to do so till 
the succeeding afternoon; between 1 and 3 o’clock the 
tension reaches its highest point, and the slighest shock 
causes ejection which is simultaneous in all the projecting 
asci. It is difficult to determine whether ejection takes 
place when everything around is perfectly still. The still- 
ness is in fact always broken by a number of younger asci 
beginning to expand every afternoon in preparation for 
ejection on the following day. It is natural to suppose that 
there must be a direct relation between this regular daily 
periodicity and the light-period, and Coemans found that 
ejection was delayed 4-5 hours in the Ascoboli, when culti- 
vated in darkness. Boudier and Zopf observed that the asci 
FIG. 45. Ascobolus furfuraceus, P. = aes 5 A . 
Portion of a section through the hy. are to a high degree positively heliotropic when they are in 
menium; AX the upper surface ofthe process of expansion ; their curvatures towards the source of 
hymenium shown by the extremities of the i 
paraphyses #, @ young ascus, 6 nearly light may extend through nearly 90°, but these curvatures 
ripe ascus projecting above A—#, e a a R 
similar one which discharged its spores almost, if not quite, entirely disappear after ejection or 
during the observation and contracted » . . Be ” 
with an open lid at the apex. Magn. if the expansion is artificially stopped. The connection 
195 times. between all these points requires more exact investi- 
gation. 
When the asci are ready to eject their spores they are very much extended and 
their broad club-shaped apex rises considerably above the surface of the hymenium; 
this led to the erroneous idea which was reproduced by Boudier, that the asci became 
detached from their point of insertion and wandered up between the paraphyses ; they 
really remain firmly attached, as in all the rest of the Discomycetes (Fig. 45). The 
projecting asci moreover are distinctly visible to the naked eye in the larger species 
as dark points, by reason of the dark violet-coloured spores in their apices. These 
points disappear at the moment of dusting, because the spores fly off and the empty 
tubes are drawn back beneath the surface of the hymenium. Older observers were 
led by these appearances to the mistaken notion that the entire asci were ejected from 
the hymenium, and hence the name Ascobolus. 


? Crouan in Ann. d. sc. nat. ser. 4, VII (1857), p. 175.—Coemans, . Spicilége, I (Bull. soc. bot. 
Belg. I, 1).—Boudier in Ann. d. sc. nat. ser. 5, X, p. 191 
