The Morphology and Development of 
the Ascocarp in Monascus. 
BY 
B. T. P. BARKER, M.A., 
Gonville and Cams College , Cambridge. 
With Plates XII and XIII. 
Source. 
HE fungus which forms the subject of this paper was 
-L obtained from a small cake of material which is used 
in the preparation of an Eastern Asiatic spirit, ‘ Samsu.’ The 
cake was supplied to me by the kindness of Mr. D. T. Gwynne- 
Vaughan and Mr. R. H. Yapp, the former of whom collected 
it during the Skeat Expedition to the Malay Peninsula. 
A small portion of the cake was added to a flask of sterilized 
rice, kept at 25° C., and an abundant mycelial growth was 
quickly formed. This consisted of a mixture of several Fungi, 
which were separated by the method of fractional plate 
cultures. Among them was the species here described. 
It is easily grown in pure cultures on various nutrient media, 
especially at a temperature of 25-30° C. Growth below 20° C. 
is very slow. In these cultures a vigorous mycelium is quickly 
produced, which soon bears numerous conidia in chains. 
Later the mycelium becomes vividly pigmented with a pig- 
ment, from a reddish orange to a purple tinge. Ascocarps 
are then formed abundantly, and all stages in their develop- 
ment can easily be obtained. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XVII. No. LXV. January, 1903.J 
