202 



MONOGRAPH OF THE LABOULBENIACEyE. 



observed and figured in several instances. The developmental relations between the 

 appendage peritheeium and receptacle were accurately made out in connection with 

 the two genera Laboulbenia and Stigmatomyces, and the origin of the asci as buds 

 from some central cell was suggested. The asci were not, however, accurately 

 observed. A third paper by Peyritsch, published in 1875, contains additional notes 

 on the development and occurrence of the Laboulbeniacece, without, however, making 

 any essential contribution to previously published data. In none of the papers of this 

 writer are the characters of the male organs determined, and he seems to incline to the 

 opinion that the latter are represented by the shorter branches of the appendages, 

 which he regarded as pollinodia and supposed to conjugate with the trichogyne. 



Following these publications of Peyritsch, we have in 1884 the suggestive sum- 

 mary by De Bary of the characters of the group so far as then known in the 

 " Doubtful Ascomycetes " of his Morphology and Biology of the Fungi, etc. In 1886 

 occurs the note of Gerke, to which my attention was drawn through the kindness of 

 Professor Giard, in which he gives a figure that, without doubt, is intended to rep- 

 resent the " Appendicularia cntomophila" of Peck, published two years later. In the 

 same year (1886), Karsten published in Hedwigia, under the title " Doubtful Ascomy- 

 cetes," a reassertion of his former observations on the sexuality of Stigmatomyces, in 

 reply to the publications of Peyritsch and De Bary already mentioned, denying their 

 ascomycetous nature and giving what he supposed to be the method by which the 

 spores were formed. 



In 1889, Berlese again summarized the group, adding to the thirteen species then 

 known a new form (Laboulbenia annillaris) found on an acarid from South America. 

 With the exception of the writer's own notes on the family, but two papers published 

 since the one just mentioned remain to be noticed : that of Giard (1892), in which he 

 describes, as a new genus Thaxteria, a remarkable species of Laboulbenia from the 

 Javan Mormolyce ; and that of Istvanfh (1895), in which he redescribes as Laboul- 

 benia giganiea a large form of L. elongata, giving his impressions of its morphology and 

 development, stating his disbelief in the sexuality of the group, and expressing the 

 erroneous opinion that the individuals are derived from a vegetative portion growing 

 within the body cavity of the insect. 



General Morphology and Development. 



Sj)ores. The spores of the Laboulbeniaceoe present a uniformity of form and 

 structure quite remarkable for so varied a group, being in all cases, without excep- 

 tion, hyaline and fusiform or acicular in shape ; and although in the single genus 



