182 Barker. — The Morphology and Development of 
extreme likelihood of the course of events up to this point, 
supported as they are by direct observation, by every analogy 
it follows that the male nucleus or nuclei fuse with female 
nuclei in pairs in the central cell. The absence of one or two 
specially large or conspicuous nuclei supports the view that 
numerous fusions occur. The time of the occurrence of the 
fusions is probably during the state of aggregation of nuclei, 
at the centre of the central cell, when it is beginning to swell. 
Confirmation of this interpretation of the nuclear behaviour 
is forthcoming by the analogy of Pyronema. As Harper has 
shown (10), a ‘pore’ fusion occurs in this fungus between the 
trichogyne and the antheridium. Numerous nuclei pass from 
the latter through the trichogyne into the ascogonium, which 
then forms a wall at the base of the trichogyne, a cell analo- 
gous to the central cell of Monascus thus being produced. Its 
nuclei aggregate at its centre, the male nuclei also travelling 
to that position, and numerous fusions in pairs then occur 
between the male and female nuclei. Similar multiple fusions 
have been shown by Stevens to occur in the oospheres of 
Albugo Bliti (20) and Albugo PorHdacae (21), the details of 
the processes being essentially the same as in Pyronema. 
There is therefore considerable ground for believing that the 
nuclear behaviour in the archicarp of Monascus consists 
in numerous fusions in pairs of male and female nuclei in the 
central cell. 
It has not been possible to distinguish nuclei in the act of 
division. It is probable, however, that some of the nuclei, 
which have been described above as having a structure con- 
sisting of a deeply stained nucleolus and an unstained nuclear 
body, are actually nuclei in course of division. If this is so, 
the structure which has been described above as the nucleolus 
consists probably of the individual chromosomes grouped 
closely together in one of the stages of karyokinesis, and 
appearing on account of the small size of the nucleus and 
nuclear figures as a single homogeneous structure. The some- 
what irregular shape of the ‘ nucleolus ’ in some instances 
lends colour to this view, which is also supported by the facts 
