132 
THE REPRODUCTION OF ASCOMYCETES. 
considered as spores at all. In presence of a sporific organ such 
as the tlieca, the development of which takes place in particular 
conceptacles, and the maturity of which is posterior to the maxi- 
mum of development of the spermogonia, it was natural to 
combine the two forms together ; the theca being probably the 
female organ ; the corpuscles, which do not germinate, according 
to M. Tulasne, being the male organs, physiologically analogous 
to grains of pollen. But the reciprocal action of these two sorts 
of organs, the manner in which they produce the fecundation, and 
the precise instant at which it takes place, still remains doubtful. 
En resume, the spermatia have been considered as some male 
organs, because of their very much reduced dimensions, of their 
considerable number, and, above all, the impossibility of making 
them germinate. 
M. Pringsheim also dwelt upon the absence of germination of 
certain agile bodies developed upon the Saprolegtiice, considering 
them as male organs, like the antherozoids. 
In a special work upon the fecundation of the SaproJegnes, I 
have shown that this way of looking at it is inexact ; the supposed 
antherozoids of the Saprolegnia dioica and of the Achh/a dioica 
are not by any means the productions of the plant which bears 
them, but really some parasites. Among the Ascomycetes, in 
many cases, the same objection cannot be made, and the organs in 
question belong in reality to the plant on which they are encoun- 
tered. The foregoing considerations have caused me to look for 
the cause of the want of success obtained by M. Tulasne, and 
maintain that the organs of fecundation are more exactly known 
among the thecasporous Fungi. It is necessary to renounce the 
idea of the spermatia being male organs; if these are, therefore, 
spores, they ought to germinate like other spores. 
11. — Germination of the Spermatia. 
The first attempts, with a view of obtaining the germination of 
the spermatia, did not succeed ; they were repeated many times. 
At the same time as* the spermatia, and with more success at first, 
some stylospores and endothecous spores of different species of 
Pyrenomycetes were put in germination. This allowed me to make, 
a great number of times, two observations, which, without being, 
new, had a great influence upon the final result. 
The spores obtained by means of cuts with a razor, and 
separated with needles, were disposed in a drop of water upon a 
microscopic slide; they remained open to the air, or were, accord- 
ing to the case, covered with a very thin plate of glass. The 
preparation was left in a humid atmosphere in order to invite 
dessication ; one could then see that the spores required, in 
order to germinate, the influence of fresh air. In a preparation 
covered with a thin glass, the germinations only exhibited them- 
selves at a very short distance at first, becoming less and less 
