220 



Mycologia 



hymenium, and after the whole surface has become deeply colored 

 purple with ripe spores, on lifting the cover of the damp chamber 

 the spores will be shot off in a cloud, just as is commonly the 

 case with many of the large fleshy discomycetes. 



The damp chamber cultures in which this fungus made its 

 appearance had been kept about two weeks in a Wardian case, 

 where they were exposed to the direct sunlight during part of 

 the day. The substratum had been heavily watered while yet 

 fresh so that at this time the mass was in a very putrid condition. 

 The excessively high temperatures prevailing in this room and the 

 condition of the substratum may perhaps account for the pro- 

 duction of mature fruit bodies in which no colored spores were 

 formed. In these cases all ejected spores were perfectly hya- 

 line. Many of these spores had already germinated within the 

 asci, and they also germinated readily in agar media without 

 special treatment. When, however, the cultures were removed 

 to a cooler room, colored spores were formed. As it was difli- 

 cult to obtain uncontaminated cultures on agar by using the un- 

 colored spores, several plates were inoculated with the colored 

 spores and heated for thirty minutes in an oven, the final tem- 

 perature of the oven being about 70° C. Spores in all the plates 

 germinated. The ascocarps do not mature well on the agar 

 media and it has been more satisfactory to transplant pieces of 

 agar containing the mycelium or young fruit bodies to the dung 

 where the supply of nutrient is less limited. Plate 73, upper 

 figure, shows a culture obtained in this manner. 



While fully 50 per cent, of the spores germinated in the earlier 

 experiments, in the case of spores gathered about ten days later 

 not over i per cent, could be made to grow by the heating process,, 

 and none germinated without heating. 



Pure cultures of the species have not been obtained on account 

 of the presence of a fungus which is parasitic on the mycelium 

 of the Ascoholus. This parasite forms large numbers of fruit 

 bodies, consisting when young of a central cell enclosed by 

 protecting hyphae. It has been possible to trace a direct con- 

 nection between the mycelium of the parasite bearing these fruit 

 bodies and the mycelium of the host bearing its characteristic 

 archicarp. As no spores of any description have been discovered. 



