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Freda M. Bachmann 
produced while in tlie lichens tliis is not the case. It would be necessary 
to secure recently produced spermogonia and at tlie same time tbose 
containing mature spermatia. Corxu observed tliat the first indication 
of germination in many spermatia, and especially in those which are 
somewhat curved, is a swelling of the cell so that it becomes ovoid. The 
spermatia then are cells which have lost a considerable amount of water 
in their formation. Corxu eontinued to use the word “spermatium”, 
but would have it apply only to very small asexual reproductive cells 
which, because of their small size, can easily be carried long distances. 
Another characteristic difference between stylospores and spermatia as 
Corxu sees them, is in the wall — the former have a double spore mein- 
braue. He says they are “conidies elilamydees”. What Tulasxe desig- 
nated as conidia, those spores borne freely on the surface and not in special 
receptacles, Corxu divided into spermatia and stylospores according 
to their size. According to this author then there are in a number of 
genera two kinds of asexual spores other than ascospores — stylospores 
and spermatia, and the latter because of their ability to germinate can 
in no case be considered male cells. 
How long the old idea that pyenidia and spermogonia are parasites 
on other fungi persisted, is shown by the fact that Bauke (2) in 1876 
after making a study of the pyenidia in severai ascomycetes, thought it 
necessary to point out that his work had proved that these structures 
are not distinct fungi, but that pyenidia were obtained on a mycelium 
originating from ascospores. Bauke also suggested in this paper that 
sinee there is so little difference in the external appearence of stylospores 
and spermatia, it might be possible that Tulasxe had occasionally des- 
cribed pyenidia for spermogonia or the reverse. 
It is evident that the role of the spermatia in the life history of the 
ascomycetes in which they occur still remained a question. Severai 
writers had guessed that they might be male cells, but nothing had been 
proved. Stahl (74) was the first to recognize the true female reproductive 
organ in the lichens and to determine at least for this group the real 
function of the spermatia. In the gelatinous lichens which he investigated, 
Collema microplnjllum and C. pulposum, Physma compadum, Synecho- 
blastus conglomeratus, Leptogium hildenbrandtii and L. microscopicum, 
Stahl found the earliest stages of apothecial development to consist of 
a tangle of hyphae surroimding a spirally wound septate hyplia which 
arises as a branch from a vegetative hyplia near the center of the thallus. 
This distal end of the coil is prolonged into a more or less straight fila- 
ment which grows toward the upper surface of the thallus and protrudes 
