
1891.] The Comparative Morphology of the Fungi. 1067 
ceeded not only in observing the germination of these bodies, but 
in raising from them fertile mycelia, thus clearly proving them to 
be a form of pycnidial conidia with’ somewhat weakened or 
reduced germinative power. Thus falls another supposed support 
of the sexual theory of the Ascomycetes. 
The conditions governing the development of the Ascomycetes 
are very little known. The ascus usually closes the cycle of 
development as the most perfect and- most highly differentiated 
fruit form. In artificial cultures of fungi of this order it is 
usually found that conidial and pycnidial spores yield the fruit 
form which produced them, and rarely give rise to the ascus-fruit, 
From what has been said. above, it will be seen that all the 
more specialized fungi are considered to be descendants of forms 
identical with, or similar to, living Phycomycetous species, and 
to have retained none of their sexual characters, since all their 
primary fruit forms have been derived from, and are referable back 
to, the Zygomycetous sporangium. We may summarize the 
points brought out and the relationships indicated by means of 
the following tabular view : 


