THE REPRODUCTION OF ASCOMYCETES. 
131 
when one considers them in a series of allied species, offers a 
general character, and have a similar disposition ; similar com- 
parisons prove, in another way, that these different spermatio- 
phorous apparati are exhibited with the same aspect as they have 
in the Lichens, but with a greater variety, because the group is 
more extensive. The spermogonia are, in general, more abun- 
dant, and thus are to be more easily studied ; the elements are 
more clear and clean, the membranes less diffluent and gelatinous, 
and the corpuscles produced in greater quantity. The spermatia 
are thrown off under the form of cirrhi, a sort of very slim, small, 
viscid C3dinders, white, yellow, red, or rose-coloured. Placed in 
water, these cirrhi become disentangled immediately ; the gum, 
which unites the spermatia and glues them together, is dissolved, 
and they are set at liberty ; they appear at times to be agitated in 
the liquid, with a movement of special trepidation very different 
from that which drags away the diatoms and zoospores, and which 
is here purely molecular. 
Their form is that of straight or curved tipcats ; they may be 
ovoid or spherical (Melogramina rubricosum), at other times more 
elongated, curved in an arch {Eutypa Arcliarii), or in the form of 
the letter V {Diatrype quercina), or yet in the form of a comma, 
very slim at one extremity, swelling at the other {^Folystigma 
ruhrum), &c. 
The branches which bear them are either arbuscles, like those of 
the Lichens, the cellules of which are in general more elongated, 
or short sterigmata. 
The spermogonia are either separated or united, presenting an 
unique or spherical or labyrinthiform cavity ; at times the sper- 
matia are borne entirely without conceptacle at the surface of the 
Fungus {Stictosphceria), like the ordinary conidia. 
Notwithstanding the great diversity of form of the spermatia 
and of the organs containing them, it is impossible for one not to 
be struck with the extreme analogy which exists between the 
greater part of these apparati and those which are encountered 
among the Lichens. We know, besides, at the present time, from 
the recent works of MM. Schwendener, Eees, and Bornet, that the 
Lichens are only a special group of the great class of Fungi.* 
The fact common to all the corpuscles called spermatia by M, 
Tulasne is, firstly, their being extremely small — at least, in one of 
their dimensions — and being produced in enormous numbers by the 
organs which give them birth. M. Tulasne, having attempted to 
make them germinate, has proved a series of checks. To the 
preceding characters, purely physical, must be added a physiolo- 
gical character, the refusal to enter into germination under 
ordinary conditions. Corpuscles, so considerable in number, which 
do not germinate nor engender any mycelium, ought not to be 
^ This Tcnowledge is confined to believers in the theory associated with 
these names. — E d. 
