REPRODUCTION OF THE ASCOMYCETES. 
107 
conditions of humidity necessary for the development of the two 
hist sorts of spores, the spermatia only are charged with the diffu- 
sion of the parasite. 
In order to try to verify our remarks, some sowings of sper- 
matia were made upon the species of vegetable which suited them ; 
a comparative sowing of the other sorts of spores was also made. 
The branches were maintained in a moist chamber such as has been 
described above ; with small supports formed of silver threads 
isolating them from the moist brick, bearing a metal ticket upon 
which was inscribed the date of the sowing, the designation of the 
species of vegetable and of the species of spores employed, tied by 
a thread of platinum. The spores were sown at the two extremi- 
ties, and in some chinks made obliquely in cutting the wood and the 
bark. 
A certain number of species were experimented upon, but the 
sowing only succeeded in two cases. 
Some similar sowings were attempted simultaneously with 
Cncurhitaria Laburni upon Cytisus Laburnum ; Massaria Platani 
upon the Plane tree; Aglaospora profusa upon Robinia pseud' 
Acacia ; Diplodia acerina upon Acer platanoides, and other species 
besides. 
It must be acknowledged that the development of a consider- 
able number of different Mucedines, Penicilliuin^ Tricliothecium, 
Fusis2')oriu7n, Verticillium, Stysanns, etc., etc., injured many of 
these cultures. Meantime, upon one of the fragments, after two 
months, we obtained the stylospores of Aglaospora profusa, upon 
which we had sown an excess of spermatia. The rose-coloured 
spores came out across the bark in long, rather recognisable 
tendrils. This species appears to develop itself very quickly upon 
the branches on which one observes it; the spermogonia are met 
with now and then in the bark still containing a little chlorophyll. 
As to the other rather doubtful example, it was a rather mixed 
sowing of Cucurbitaria Laburni; a stroma formed itself, but it 
had no emission of spores. Perhaps the complete development 
required a longer time. 
These experiences, although incomplete, have their signification, 
but they should be repeated under more favourable conditions, such 
as protection from the mould, which, in laboratories, always obstructs 
cultures extending over long periods. 
Thus, we may conclude that among the Ascomycetes the sper- 
matia are not male organs, but very probably the agents for the 
dissemination of the species to a great distance. They are very 
numerous and very small. In order to attain their first develop- 
ment they only grow when they have arrived upon a substratum 
which suits them ; they germinate there only, and there they 
remain. 
It is, therefore, necessary to renounce the idea of considering 
the spermatia as fecundative bodies ; but if their role is not that 
which had been primitively assigned to them, if the interpretation 
