35 2 Groom . — On Thismia Aseroe ( Beccari ) 
and none from its captor ; and further it is entirely consumed 
by the latter, nor has it a chance afforded of propagating its 
species after capture. Do these two conditions hold for the 
endotrophic Fungus? 
With reference to the absorption of food, it has been shown 
earlier in this paper that the hyphae absorb food manufactured 
by the cortical cells in the mycorhiza of Thismia , and that 
this absorption by the hyphae is accompanied by a large 
increase in their protoplasm. Now the hypertrophied hyphae 
(in the cortex, and occasionally in the inner cells of the sheath) 
are only found in cells which, before the hyphae entered, 
contained starch. When the hyphae penetrate these cells 
the starch disappears, and does not reappear in them till 
there is evidence that the hyphae cease, or almost cease, 
manufacturing protoplasm. In the mediocortex, as bladder 
after bladder forms in a cell, starch remains absent, but when 
the formation of new bladders stops and the hyphae all die, 
starch may reappear 1 . These facts tend to show that the 
starch disappears and remains absent because the carbohydrates 
are being consumed in the production of proteids , and not 
because the cell ceases to be able to manufacture carbohy- 
drates. But this does not imply that the soluble carbo- 
hydrate (sugar) is absorbed as such by the hypha. It may 
be that the hypha merely causes more vigorous osmotic 
currents to the cell which entertains it, and thus brings 
a larger supply of nutritive material, which with the car- 
bohydrate forms proteid in the cell. Or it is possible that 
the sugar is directly absorbed by the hypha, and the proteid 
built up in the hypha. Both soluble carbohydrates and 
soluble proteids act chemotropically on fungal hyphae. But 
whether it be proteid or simply carbohydrate (sugar) which 
is manufactured near the host’s nucleus and is then absorbed 
by the hypha, the co-operation of the cell and hypha has three 
effects. First, as evidenced by the increased size and staining 
1 I have noted the same fact in orchidaceous mycorhiza, that starch appears in 
the old cells of the mediocortex when the hyphal clumps are dead. So Frank is 
incorrect in saying that starch is not present in cells containing the fungal hyphae. 
