REPRODUCTION OF THE ASCOMYCETES. 
88 
small spores wliich precede the others, the appearance of which 
takes place regularly around some spermogonia, supporting them- 
selves upon the circinating disposition of the ascophorous con- 
ceptacles born after them. Many Valsce can furnish examples. 
2nd. Might they not be some perithecia hindered in their develop- 
ment, hollowed out, then filled by some parasitic Fungus, the 
reproductive conceptacles of which render them abortive, as really 
does take place by the fact that i\\Q Exosporiuin lives at the expense 
of the Hercospora Tilioe ? 
The specific identity of the stylospores and of the endospores, 
which is not, by the by, doubted, is easy to prove ; it suffices to 
cite Cucurhitaria, Melaiiconis, etc., of which the spores of both 
species offer the same form. In Pleospora herbarum, although 
different in appearances, all the reproductive forms may by germi- 
nation give place to spores whicli have the form of the other. One 
might use (with regard to the spermatia) a similar reasoning. 
One finds, in fact, in Stictesphceria Hoffmanni among certain 
Valsce, in Sphceria {Pleurostoma) Candollei, some spermatia 
almost identical to the endospores, or very little different ; in 
the Cucurhitaria the spermatia much recall certain stylospores, 
since M. Tulasne considers them as a form of these last, and in 
Eutypa Acharii certain conidia. 
In other species one finds spermatia and stylospores, either 
separately or in the same conceptacle {^Aglaospora profusa, De 
Not.). In a word, there are some profound analogies and a great 
kindred between the three sorts of reproductive organs. 
Finally, the development of some of these reproductive holies, 
both stylospores and spermatia, give place to black filaments, 
the appearance of which, the colour and internal plasma, are quite 
similar in the filaments which constitute the partitions of the con- 
ceptacles. The cavity is accordingly filled, not by a parasite, but 
by the reproductive body of the same Fungus as that which forms 
the partitions. The presence, in a great number of Ascomycetes, 
of three forms of spores, distinct in origin, and generally also in 
form, ought to be considered as necessary to signalise here. The 
importance is great ; above all, in the case where these three forms 
of spores all germinate with facility, whether they are different 
{Hypomyces') or really have between them an evident analogy and 
some passages {Pleospora) ; this remark holds equally good in the 
preceding paragraph. 
What is the distinctive character of the Spermatia ? — M. Tulasne 
formerly considered the absence of germination as sufficient ; that 
was even his criterion. We have seen that we ought to abandon 
this manner of looking at the subject, and search for another cha- 
racter without reference to the preceding considerations. It is, 
besides, a rather embarrassing question ; the elements which we 
have united hitherto are not perhaps sufficient in order to resolve 
it ; it is necessary to make a complete study of the whole of the 
Ascomycetes. In certain cases this might attain some importance. 
