Dale. — Observations on Gymnoascaceae. 573 
hypha, one on each side of, and quite close to, a transverse 
wall. These swellings grow out into little branches, which 
twist spirally round one another and become club-shaped. 
At this stage Baranetzky observed that the two cells cannot 
be separated, but he says ‘ a true copulation does not occur 
since both cells remain completely closed. 5 They each become 
cut off by a wall from the hypha on which they arose. The 
free end of one cell swells, and becomes cut off by a transverse 
wall from the part below it. The other cell puts out from its 
free end a thin cylindrical projection, which is also cut off by 
a side wall. This cell gives rise to the ascogenous hyphae, 
and may therefore be called the ascogenous cell , while the other 
may be distinguished as the sterile cell. The cylindrical pro- 
jection lays itself round the swollen end of the sterile cell, and 
encircles it once by annular growth. It becomes segmented 
into almost isodiametric cells. Certain of these cells, generally 
not more than two, grow out into hyphae, which branch 
copiously without increasing much in length. In consequence 
there arise thick tufts with many short branches which swell 
at their ends and form asci. From the base of the sterile 
cell, meanwhile, grow out thin vegetative hyphae. 
The results of the work about to be described, in most of 
the essential points, confirm those obtained by Baranetzky, 
but, by the use of modern methods, they have been extended. 
In 1877 van Tieghem 1 described under the name Gymno - 
ascus ruber , a species which he compared with G. Reessii. His 
account of the development of the reproductive organs is very 
short, and he gives no figures. This species belongs to 
Schroeter’s genus Arachniotus. 
In 1883 Eidam 2 described G. Reessii as it occurred on 
a pupa of Sphinx Galii. He did not find the reproductive 
organs described by Baranetzky, but gives the origin of the 
coiled hyphae as follows : below the dividing wall of a my- 
celial hypha a lateral branch arises which coils closely round 
1 (1) Sur le developpement de quelques Ascomycetes. Bull, de la Soc. Bot. de 
France, vol. xxiv, p. 159 (1877). 
2 (1) Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Gymnoasceen. Cohn’s Beitrage, p. 267 (1883). 
