Dale— Observations on Gymnoascaceae. 587 
he saw no fusion between the two cells, so that ‘ fertilization 5 
must take place by means of £ transfusion * through the wall 
between them. 
Eidam 1 also takes a sexual process for granted in the 
species he cultivated, viz. G. Reessii , G. uncinatus , and in 
the closely allied genus Ctenomyces. 
On the other hand, van Tieghem 2 , Zukal 3 , and Brefeld 4 5 6 7 8 
emphatically deny the occurrence of any sexual process what- 
soever. Van Tieghem, indeed, denies that sexuality occurs in 
any Ascomycete, on account of what he calls the ‘ monocarpous 
Ascomycetes,’ i. e. Ascomycetes in which, according to him, the 
asci arise from a solitary original branch 5 . The cases where 
actual fusion has been seen he regards as examples of purely 
vegetative union, comparable to ordinary anastomosis. 
Brefeld, according to whose observations the coils in G. Reessii 
are formed from a single branch, also, for this reason, considers 
that any idea of sexuality is quite out of the question. Some 
cases which he saw of coils made up of two hyphae, like those 
described by Baranetzky, he regards as pathological. 
But undoubted cases of fertilization in which has been seen 
the union, not only of the conjugating cells, but in some cases 
of their nuclei also, have now been recorded amongst the 
Ascomycetes, e. g. in Sphaerotheca Castagnei 6 and Pyronema 
conflnens 7 by Harper, and also in Eremascus albus* by Eidam, 
1 loc. cit. (1), p. 300. 
2 loc. cit. (1), p. 96. 
3 Ueber einige neue Pilzformen und iiber das Verhaltniss der Gymnoascen zu 
den iibrigen Ascomyceten : Berichte der Deutschen Bot. Gesellschaft, Bd. viii, 
p. 295 (1890). 
(2) Sur le d^veloppement du fruit des Chaetomium et la pretendue sexuality 
des Ascomycetes. Ann. des Sci. Nat., 6 e ser., vol. ii, p. 364 (1875). 
1 loc. cit. (1), p. 159. 
5 (3) Sur le d^veloppement du fruit des Ascodesmis , genre nouveau de l’ordre 
des Ascomycetes. Bull, de la Soc. Bot. de France, vol. xxiii, p. 271 (1876). 
6 Die Entwickelung des Peritheciums bei Sphaerotheca Castagnei'. Ber. der 
Deut. Bot. Ges., Bd. xiii, p. 475 (1895). 
7 Sexual reproduction in Pyronema confiuens , and the morphology of the 
Ascocarp. Annals of Botany, vol. xiv, p. 321 (1900). 
8 (3) Zur Kenntniss der Entwickelung bei den Ascomyceten. Cohn’s Beitrage, 
vol. iii, p. 385 (1883). 
