204 DIVISION II.—COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT OF FUNGI. 
the shape of a hollow spiral with four or five turns which lie close to one another. 
The spiral is divided by transverse walls into about as many cells as there are turns. 
Then two or three slender branchlets grow from the lowest turn in the direction of 
the apex, and are closely applied to the surface of the spiral; one of these gets in 
advance of the rest and is the first to reach the apex; there it lays its upper 
extremity on that of the spiral filament, and, if we may trust our observations, 
the two filaments conjugate, that is, their protoplasmic bodies unite by the dis- 
appearance of the intervening membranes. Sometimes the branch which anticipates 
the rest is seen to grow up inside the spiral, and then the conjugation cannot be so 
certainly ascertained; from its behaviour it must be regarded as the antheridial 
branch. When it has reached the apex of the spiral it is followed by the rest, and 
now all of them put out new branches which become so interlaced and divided by 
transverse walls that the spiral is soon covered by a compact layer of isodiametric 
cells. The lowest turn of the spiral itself participates in the formation of this layer, 
which surrounds the rest of the spiral, the ascogonium-hypha, as the perfectly closed 
outer wall of the globular sporocarp. The cells of the outer wall do not divide ' 
again; but while the sporocarp increases considerably in volume they grow in the 
direction of the surface into a tabular form, and secrete on their outer membrane, 
which continues thin and colourless, a golden-yellow substance readily soluble in 
alcohol in the form of a thick brittle pellicle. Branches shoot out, as in Erysiphe, 
from the inner surface of the cells of the outer wall, as soon as these have united, 
and ramify and become interlaced and soon form an inner wall of many layers, 
while fresh branches from them push in between the loosening turns of the spiral, 
and fill the space between it and the outer wall with a tissue composed of thin-walled 
cells rich in protoplasm and without interstices. The growth of this tissue causes 
the sporocarp at first to increase in volume in every direction and constantly forces 
the coils of the spiral ascogonium further apart. When it has reached a certain 
point, the spiral begins to put out numerous branches, the ascogenous hyphae, which 
thrust themselves in between the inner wall-cells in every direction, and replace 
them, and the many extremities of their numerous ramifications become ovoid 
eight-spored asci. The continuity of the ascogenous hyphae is more and more lost 
as the asci are formed, so that as the spores begin to ripen the outer wall encloses 
only asci and the remains of the hyphae and the cells of the inner wall, and at 
length the walls of the asci themselves disappear and the sporocarp contains scarcely 
anything but ripe spores. 
3. According to Brefeld’s researches, the development of the sporocarps of 
Penicillium glaucum also begins with the appearance of a spirally twisted hyphal 
‘branch. But here we find in the first stages that are open to observation two similar 
branchlets surrounded by felted mycelium, which always arise close to one another 
and are spirally twisted round one another in one or two turns; whether they are 
morphologically and physiologically of equal or unequal value cannot be directly 
determined, and the further development gives no certain information on this point, 
so that we can only speak of a distinction between archicarp and antheridial 
branch of like form with it from the analogy of the otherwise nearly related Eurotium, 
Then from the spirally twisted’ body—whether from one only of its component 
parts or from both is not ascertained—short ascogenous hyphae grow out as branches 
