the A sco carp in Monascus . 179 
hyphae from which the asci are eventually developed may be 
to some extent traced ; but they have considerable disadvan- 
tages. Not only is there some difficulty in finding all the 
members of a series of sections of an ascocarp and of piecing 
them together accurately, but also in the cutting of the series 
the sections of the ascocarp become crushed or partially folded 
up, and in the subsequent floating out of the sections in hot 
water complete unfolding often does not take place; in 
particular great difficulty is experienced in distinguishing 
between certain portions of the central cell and the investing 
hyphae. 
Starting with the formation of the ascocarp, the chief 
interest in the stained material is fixed on the behaviour 
of the nuclei. On the whole the iron-alum haematoxylin 
method of staining is the most satisfactory for the nuclear 
work. 
The cells of the mycelium are multinucleate, and the same 
appears to be the case with the conidia from the time of their 
formation. The growing points of the hyphae, particularly 
those of the archicarp-bearing hyphae, are crowded with 
nuclei. The nuclei appear to stain in two ways. In the young 
hyphae and the archicarps the nuclei are distinguishable 
separately only by their nucleoli, which stain very deeply and 
are relatively large, the bodies of such nuclei being apparently 
almost unstained, each thus appearing as a light spherical space 
containing a deeply stained granule. The protoplasm stains 
rather deeply in these portions of the mycelium, not so deeply 
as the nucleoli, but darker than the bodies of the nuclei, this 
doubtless being due to the presence of some substance pecu- 
liar to the protoplasm of young hyphae which has a strong 
affinity for stains. On this account, and owing also to the large 
number of nuclei present in these parts, it is almost impossible 
to define the limits of any particular nucleus. Their numbers 
are indicated by the number of nucleoli. In the older hyphae 
the bodies of the nuclei stain rather deeply and almost 
uniformly, but no nucleolus is conspicuous, and the protoplasm 
with haematoxylin is almost unstained. 
