104 



Mycologia 



perithecium. No evidence of the formation of micro- and 

 macro-conidia could be discovered, although considerable varia- 

 tion in size was noted, from 6 to lo by 7 to 15 /x. The conidia 

 are sometimes tinged with red in old cultures; usually, however, 

 they are colorless (pi. 22, /. 2, j). Germination occurs under 

 suitable conditions within a few hours (pi. 22, /. 5). 



Ascocarp or ''Perithecium." The fruiting body of Monascus 

 (or Physomyces) was first described by Harz (1890) as a 

 sporangium or sporocarp. More recent writers, as Barker 

 (1903) and Olive (1905), have shown it to be of an ascomycet- 

 ous type, although this claim has been denied by Ikeno (1903). 

 All are agreed, however, that it is produced as the result of a 

 true sexual fusion. Observations of the form in question seem 

 to indicate that the interpretation given by Olive (1905) is the 

 correct one. Serial sections have not been prepared, however, 

 and the exact sequence of events cannot be accurately determined 

 without a careful study of the subject. The perithecia develop 

 in great numbers upon the hyphae and are generally terminal, 

 though sometimes apparently lateral (pi. 2^, f. 8). The young 

 perithecia may be found in suitable media within two or three 

 days after sowing the conidia. They develop not only on aerial 

 hyphae, but also in the body of a medium such as agar, and no- 

 where were they found more abundant than in 5 and 10 per cent, 

 glycerin solutions. So marked is this abiHty to produce peri- 

 thecia and conidia under water, that the organism might well be 

 classed as one of the aquatic molds. An antheridial cell fuses 

 with a functioning egg cell, and, within this, are developed the 

 ascogenous hyphae which ultimately form one to many asci, each 

 typically with eight ascospores. The steps in this process can be 

 seen only with difficulty, for the " central cell " soon becomes 

 closely invested by sterile hyphae which branch and apparently 

 anastomose about it. 



Various steps in the development of these hyphae may be seen 

 in the figures (pi. 2^, f. 4-10). Sometimes branches may extend 

 out from this investing mass (pi. 2^, f. 10) and even produce 

 conidia. These hyphae soon lose their contents and collapse, 

 forming a thin membrane at maturity, which sometimes shows 

 little evidence of its origin. PI. 23, f. 11 shows a perithecium 



