56 
D. D. CUNNINGHAM. 
mere loose aggregation of granular matter. In other instances, 
however, germination occurred. Evolution in such cases was 
limited to the development of short germinal tubes, and no 
formation of mycelium ever ensued. The germinal tubes having 
been formed, two final results occurred. These consisted either 
in a granular disintegration of the protoplasm, or in the forma- 
tion of chlamydosporic reproductive bodies. In the one case the 
contents of the tubes ultimately consisted of a collection of 
swarming oil granules ; in the other they became condensed into 
shining, isolated masses of oval or fusiform outline, consisting of 
dense aggregations of protoplasmic material, invested by a 
limiting layer, and in other respects resembling similar repro- 
ductive bodies occurring in other mucorine fungi. 
2nd. Cvltivations of germinal tubes . — In this case the conidia 
were introduced into nutritive fluid, and, at the close of some 
hours, when germination had freely taken place, the fluid was 
washed out and replaced by distilled water. The healthy germinal 
tubes (vide fig. I, a) contain an abundance of dimly clouded 
protoplasm, with numerous vacuoles and a few distinct granules. 
The primary effect of the substitution of water for the nutritive 
fluid is a great increase in vacuolation, the protoplasm becoming 
contracted as absorption progresses, and ultimately in the 
majority of tubes being reduced to an irregular peripheral layer, 
lining the walls of the tubes, and to a series of connecting 
processes extending across the cavity and forming irregular 
anastomoses with the lining layer. Whilst these changes occur 
in the distribution of the protoplasm, ^another series of alterations 
affect its composition. The number of granules present in it, 
which originally is very small, rapidly increases, and this increase 
combines with the altered arrangement in distribution to render 
the streaming motion of the protoplasm very evident as the 
granules are hurried along the peripheral layer and reticular 
processes. The granules continue to increase in size and number, 
and assume a more or less distinctly oily aspect, and after the 
lapse of a few hours are very abundant and conspicuous. After 
twelve hours of starvation all protoplasmic activity has ceased in 
most of the tubes, and the contents are now represented by a 
mere network of filaments studded with bright granules (fig. 1, b), 
but in some instances movement continues with great vigour, 
and is rendered particularly clear by the abundance and size of 
the granules. Einally, however, movement ceases in these tubes 
also, and they come to present the same appearances as the 
others. The peripheral layer of protoplasm appears to become 
gradually detached from the walls of the tube, so that the con- 
tents become reduced to a mere tangled aggregation of filaments 
and granules, Eventually the connecting material disappears. 
