Dale. — Observations on Gymnoascaceae . 575 
brief description, says that the mode of origin of the coil which 
precedes the formation of the asci is the same as in G. Reessii. 
No detailed life-history of this species has yet been given. 
3. Gymnoascus candidus (Eidam) [Arachniotus candidus , 
Schroeter) was first described in 1886 by Eidam 1 , who gives 
an account of the mature fructifications as found by him grow- 
ing spontaneously on cooked rice. It was subsequently sepa- 
rated from Gymnoascus and placed in a new genus, Arach- 
niotus , by Schroeter 2 , who at the same time founded the genus 
A mauroascus on other species previously included in the genus 
Gymnoascus. The two new genera both agreed in having a 
peridium of very thin-walled, similar hyphae ; whereas, ac- 
cording to Schroeter’s limitations, Gymnoascus has a peridium 
of thick-walled hyphae which branch copiously and form a kind 
of trellis. Arachniotus differs from Amauroascus in having 
colourless, red, or yellow ascospores, while in Amauroascus 
the ascospore-wall is brown or brownish-violet. 
In the genus Arachniotus Schroeter places three species, 
Gymnoascus candidus (Eidam), G. ruber 3 (van Tieghem), and 
G. aureus (Eidam 4 ). Schroeter describes mature asci and 
conidia, but the life-history has not been worked out until now, 
as Eidam’s cultures were unsuccessful and he saw no conidia. 
Methods of Culture and Preparation. 
The three species were isolated by means of plate cultures, 
and the colonies thus obtained were transferred to one of the 
following culture media : — sterilized horse-dung in tubes, ex- 
tract of horse-dung in 2 per cent, agar-agar, or beer-wort in 
2 per cent, agar-agar. The agar was sterilized in test-tubes. 
The most convenient method was found to be to grow, fix, 
and harden the fungus on the agar in the tube, as the species 
grew equally well on any of the media 5 . The material thus 
obtained was imbedded in paraffin, and the sections were 
1 (2) loc. cit., p. 5 (1886). 
2 loc. cit., p. 210. See also Saccardo, Syll. Fung., vol. xi, p. 438 (1895). 
3 See p. 573. 4 loc* cit. (2). 
5 As a fixing reagent Flemming’s weak solution was used. 
