CHAPTER VI.—PHENOMENA OF GERMINATION. 351 
In the cases in which a supply of nutrient substance is mecessary for 
germination, the commencement of the process of germination implies a previous 
commencement of a process of nutrition, which is only another way of expressing the 
facts. Accordingly germination is attended by the permanent and constant increase 
in the amount of protoplasm which was described on page 113. The germinating 
spore behaves in the same way as a growing vegetative cell. The same thing 
evidently takes place in the intermediate cases connected with this extreme. It has 
yet to be enquired how far water only may be taken up from the solution in other 
cases, for instance at the commencement of germination. 
The nutrient substances suited for germination are in most cases of the same 
kind as those adapted to the vegetation of each species. Yet there appear to be 
exceptions to this rule. The spores of Ascobolus furfuraceus! which vegetates in the 
faeces of herbivorous animals have only at present been made to germinate on the 
mucous membrane of the stomach of living animals. They did not germinate in 
water or in nutrient solutions or in juice obtained by artificial means from the 
stomach of a pig, neither in the ordinary temperature of the room nor in that of the 
animal body. It remains to enquire how far the germination depended on special material 
qualities of the surface of the mucus membrane. I observed similar phenomena in the 
case of Onygena corvina which vegetates normally on the feathers of birds of prey. 
No result was obtained when spores were sown on microscopic slides with the variations 
mentioned above; but there was a fine formation of compound sporophores of Ony- 
gena on the hairs cast up by a white ow] which had been kept a long time in captivity 
and which had received the spores of the Fungus with a mouse which it had eaten; 
the Fungus developed on the hair from the mouse on which the spores had been 
strewed and from no other. The development of Onygena came to an end indeed on 
most of the hairs thus obtained, and a rich growth of Gymnoascus, not intentionally 
sown, took its place, which perhaps drove out the Onygena. Further investigation 
of this case is necessarily deferred. 
The formation of the germ-tubes of Protomyces macrosporus has hitherto been 
observed only on the epidermis of Aegopodium, not in nutrient solutions. It 
remains to be seen whether this is a similar case to those which we have been 
considering, or one where a particular nutrient substance is required for the process of 
germination. 
It appears from the facts which have now been enumerated, that the necessity 
for the presence of nutrient matter in germination, as well as for certain temperatures 
and for the changes not exactly ascertained which must take place during the state 
of rest, are connected with analogous specific differences or adaptations in the plants 
themselves. We can scarcely suppose that the necessity for a nutrient substance 
depends simply on the guantity of reserve material present in the spore. This is 
shown by the recorded observations on the ascospores of Sclerotinia Fuckeliana as com- 
pared with the very similar spores of the nearly related Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum. The 
latter germinate readily in pure water. On the other hand, it is obvious that the 
spores which only need a supply of water for normal germination must be provided 
also with the requisite quantity of reserve material. 
_ There are still many spores of Fungi, entire groups of them, which have never been 
observed to germinate. Putting the spermatia mentioned in the morphological portion 

1 Janczewski in Bot. Ztg., 1871, p. 257. 
