574 Dale. — Observations on Gymnoascaceae. 
the parent hypha or one which is adjacent. After winding 
round in a close coil for about eight or ten times it becomes 
loose and septate, and then grows out into branches which 
are the ascogenous hyphae. Eidam further states that Bara- 
netzky says the method of reproduction described by him only 
occurs in weak mycelia. 
I can find no such statement in Baranetzky’s paper ; in fact, 
he distinctly says that his cultures were perfectly normal and 
strong. 
Eidam 1 also cultivated G. ruber ( Arachniotus ruber), and 
in this species he found the kind of reproductive organs 
described by Baranetzky in G. Reessii , but only the early 
stages were described. Cell-fusion was not seen, although 
he sought specially for it, because he had already discovered 
it in Eremascus 2 . Perhaps the stages seen were too young, 
or the cultures not strong enough, as the ripe fructifications 
were never formed. In G. uncinatus , described by Eidam 1 
as a new species, the early stages also agreed with Baranetzky’s 
account of G. Reessii. The fungus occurred spontaneously 
on sparrow-dung, but here again the ripe asci were not 
obtained in culture. 
In 1891 G. Reessii was again described by Brefeld 3 , who de- 
clares that the ascogenous hyphae arise from solitary branches, 
each of which coils itself into a spiral, from which the ascogenous 
hyphae are produced by branching. Baranetzky figures a few 
such solitary branches, but regards them as anomalous cases 
which do not develop farther. Brefeld confirms Baranetzky’s 
account of the formation of the asci on the ascogenous hyphae. 
2. Gymnoascus setosus (Eidam) was first described by Eidam 4 
as a new species at a meeting of the Botanical section of the 
Schlesische Gesellschaft fur vaterldndische Cultur , in January, 
1882. Its habitat was an old wasp’s nest. Eidam, in a very 
1 loc. cit. (1), p. 273. 
a (2) Untersuchungen iiber die Familie der Gymnoascaceen : Bericht iiber 
die Thatigkeit der bot. Section der Schlesischen Gesellschaft, p. 164 (1886). 
3 (1) Ascomyceten, ii, Heft x, p. 158 (1891). 
4 ( 3 ) Ueber Entwickelungsgeschichte der Askomyceten : Jahresbericht der 
Schlesischen Gesell., p. 175 (1883), and Bot. Cent., vol. x, p. 107 (1882). 
