592 Wager . — The Sexuality of the Fungi. 
know it in those cases which have been fully investigated. 
For there are, I think, no cases in which multiple fusion of 
nuclei is found as a definite sexual act or accompanying 
a sexual act, if we except some few cases of polyspermy, in 
higher plants and animals. And in the lower plants the cases 
in which it is said to occur are doubtful, if we except those 
cases of multiple union of motile gametes. In Sphaeroplea , 
for example, it is said that the oosphere-nucleus is formed 
by the fusion of several nuclei 1 ; but Klebahn 2 in a recent 
paper states that even when the oosphere contains more than 
one nucleus, they do not fuse together to form one, but that 
fertilization takes place by the fusion of the spermatozoid- 
nucleus with one only of the oosphere-nuclei. The presence 
of more than one nucleus in the oosphere of this plant is 
remarkable, but, as Klebahn says, it does not alter our views 
as to the essential phenomena of fertilization, for even here it 
consists in a fusion of the male nucleus with one nucleus of the 
oosphere, the other nuclei remaining unchanged 3 . 
In Dasycladus it is said that the nucleus of each gamete is 
formed by a fusion of several vegetative nuclei 4 . 
In the Mucorineae, according to Dangeard and Leger 5 . 
a fusion of nuclei apparently takes place in the zygote, but 
this is not certain, and Istvanffi 6 states that the zygote is 
‘ thatsachlich mehrkernig.’ The other cases of multiple 
nuclear fusion which have been described in the Fungi do 
not accompany a definite sexual act, although it is suspected 
to occur in some forms, the cytology of which has not been 
investigated. 
The objection to Dangeard’s view which is often made is 
that the nuclei which fuse are too nearly related to one 
1 Sse Hartog, Some Problems of Reproduction, p. 19. 
2 Klebahn, Die Befruchtung von Sphaeroplea annulina A g. Sonderabdruck aus 
der Festschrift fiir Schwendener. 
3 Klebahn, loc. cit., p. ioj. 
4 See Hartog, loc. cit, p. 18. 
5 Loc. cit., Le Botaniste, 1894, p. 10. 
6 Istvanffi, Ueber die Rolle der Zellkerne bei der Entwickelung der Pilze. Ber. 
d. Deutsch. Bot. Ges., 1895, Bd. xiii, p. 454. 
