STARVATION OF VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL TISSUES. 
55 
conidia arising from them are densely packed with coarsely 
granular matter. 
This granular matter may be determined to be of an oily 
nature by the use of appropriate reagents^ and its appearance 
in the fructifying mycelia and filaments of fungi is a phenomenon 
of frequent occurrence. It is usually ascribed to accumulation 
of oily matter derived from the nutritive medium, and to this, 
no doubt, it may in many cases be in great part due, but that it 
is entirely and invariably to be accounted for in this way is ren- 
dered very questionable by the phenomena which will presently 
be recorded as occurring in the protoplasm of starved mycelia. 
An excessive supply of nutritive material is certainly not favor- 
able to the development of fructification, for where a portion of 
mycelium is retained in a concentrated and frequently renewed 
nutritive medium, the appearance of fertile filaments is in- 
definitely delayed, and the mycelium continues to grow luxuriantly, 
while a crop of reproductive bodies may generally be readily 
secured from it by diluting the medium or ceasing to renew it, 
and thereby allowing its nutritive properties to become ex- 
hausted. 
Various other remarkable effects are produced by variations in 
the amount of nutritive supply, the special form assumed by the 
fructification in any cultivation being to a great extent directly 
determined by the quantity and quality of the nutritive medium. 
These will be referred to again in the descriptions of the effects 
of starvation of the mycelium, and a detailed account of them 
would occupy more space than can be devoted to it here. The 
general points to be borne in mind are — 1st, that during the 
evolution of the young plants from the reproductive cells there 
is an involution and disappearance of oily matter ; 2nd, that in 
young mycelia, in which vegetative growth is at a maximum 
and nutrition most abundant, the protoplasm contains a minimum 
of differentiated oily matter ; 3rd, that in older mycelia, and 
especially in the fructifying filaments and young reproductive 
bodies, a great accumulation of oily matter occurs ; 4th, that 
excessive nutrition appears to be antagonistic to the development 
of reproductive bodies. 
Keeping these facts in view, the phenomena attending diminu- 
tion, or deprivation of nutritive material, may now be described. 
The experiments regarding these may be referred to the follow- 
ing subdivisions : — 1st, cultivation of conidia in distilled water; 
2nd, cultivation of germinal filaments in distilled water; 3rd, 
cultivation of more or less developed mycelia in distilled water. 
1st. Cultivations of conidia in distilled water . — In many 
cases, as previously mentioned, the conidia refused to germinate 
at all, while their contents became gradually resolved into a 
