®rigtnal Articles. 



REFEEENCES TO PLATE III. 

 [The New Yoekshiee Mosses. — vide p. 85.] 

 Fig. 1. Aulacomnium turgidum, WaM. 



a. Lees and "West's plant from TMiemside (nat. size). 

 6. Fruiting specimen from Norway (nat. size). 



c. Apex of leaf, magnified. ^ 



d. Base of do. do. 



e. Outline of leaf. 



Fig. 2. Fontinalis ( antipyretica, var.^ gracilis, Lindb. 



/. Prof. Barker's plant from Malliam (nat. size.). 



g. Outline of leaf. 



h. Base of do. 



i. Apes of do. 



k. Fruiting specimen from Helsingfors, Gathered by Lindberg. 

 Comd. Dr. Braithwaite. 



THE SEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF FUNGI. 



By Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc. 

 (Concluded.) 



Zygomycetes. Another order of fungoid Zygospores in which a sexual 

 mode of reproduction has been observed is that of the Zygomycetes., which 

 includes the well-known Mucors. A common but excellent type of the 

 order is found in Mucor mucedo, which may be met with on raw and 

 preserved fruits, animal excreta, &c., at all seasons of the year. The 

 vegetative body of this plant consists of a number of tubular, usually 

 aseptate threads, which become more or less closely interwoven during 

 growth, to form a felted mass termed the mycelium. It is reproduced 

 asexually by chlamydospores, and by spores formed endogenously in a 

 sporangium, and sexually by zygospores which are formed in this way. 



Two perfectly similar and neighbouring threads come into contact, or 

 " conjugate," by' their free swollen extremities, the contents of which 

 become shut off from the contents of the rest of the threads, by trans- 

 verse partitions. These threads are straight in Mucor, RJiizopus, and 

 CJicetocladium, but in Phycomyces they are curved. The double partition 

 which separates the protoplasm in the dilated heads of the conjugating 

 threads soon becomes absorbed, and the two portions then coalesce and 

 blend together to form a single mass, which, having formed for itself a 

 double cellulose coat, becomes the zygospore (Fig. 2, PL II). 



The zygospore thus formed remains quiescent for a time, and is said to 

 require desiccation before it germinates. When this occurs, the delicate 



N. S., YOL. iv.,iFeb,, 1879. 



