CHAPTER V.-—COMPARATIVE REVIEW.—ASCOMPCETES.—ASCOBOLUS. 207 
a series of simple apparently similar cells rich in protoplasm which grow to be about 
as long as broad, and then a preliminary cessation of this growth takes place. Slender 
branches which spring from the mycelium near the archicarp, and also branch. 
themselves, now grow in the direction of the archicarp and apply themselves and 
their branches closely to its free extremity (Fig. 95 J). They behave in this respect 
like the antheridial branches of Eurotium and Erysiphe and may therefore receive the 
same name. Their contact with the archicarp is followed at once by the formation 
of a large number of fresh branches on the hyphae which produced them and on 
adjacent mycelial hyphae, and all these later branches grow closely interlaced round 
the archicarp and the first antheridial branches, which from this time cease to be 
distinguishable. The archicarp is thus at once inclosed in a compact hyphal coil, 
the envelope, which then grows considerably, partly by the introduction of new hyphal 
branches partly by the increase in size of those previously formed, the cells of which 
become vesicular and for the most part 
continue united together into a dense 
pseudo-parenchyma. A fewperipheral layers 
of these cells form a thick-walled rind, 
which is yellow in Ascobolus furfuraceus 
from the colour of the membranes but is 
differently coloured in other species, and 
which sends rhizoid-hyphae into the sub- 
stratum at the points of contact, while in 
many species, but not in A. furfuraceus, it 
produces spreading hairs of peculiar form 
and arrangement, With all these changes 
the sporocarp assumes a spherical shape, 
and the course and direction of its growth 
are such that the archicarp remains in- 
closed in the dasal portion of the sphere 
where it rests on the substratum. The in 3. (ee avec s archleam. 
‘ a ith th hyphae s spreading in the sub-hy 
formation of paraphyses begins at the same ayer ana me asci a dark, Zantheridial branch, 47 tissue 
time as the differentiation of the rind in grammalcalyr ae 
the opposite apzcal region, and their first 
beginnings appear as branches from a zone of narrow cells still rich in protoplasm 
in the tissue of the envelope, /he subhymenial zone, which passes across the apical 
region beneath the rind. The paraphyses are formed as slender hyphal out-growths 
in this region; each of them can send out new and similar branches of more than 
one order near its point of origin. But the ends of the branches of every order grow 
into slender long-celled filaments which constitute the paraphyses, and converging at 
first have all a direction from the subhymenial zone towards the apical region of the 
rind and end below it. In proportion as they elongate and increase in number 
by the introduction of new branches from the subhymenial region and whilst the 
surrounding parts follow these processes of growth, the space between the rind and 
the subhymenial layer grows broader, but is always being filled up by the paraphyses 
which are arranged close beside one another as the first commencement of the Aymenium. 
It may be observed here by anticipation that the growth of the hymenium continues 



