184 Barker . — The Morphology and Development of 
indistinct, and their course can hardly be traced. The only 
positions where they are clearly visible are at the sides of 
the central cell. The latter in consequence becomes clear in 
outline again, and its further development can be followed. 
Its structure at this stage seems to be very variable. 
On rare occasions it is a large, more or less spherical 
cell, filled with much vacuolated protoplasm and containing 
numerous nuclei (see Fig. 19). 
Sometimes it appears as a large spherical cell — as in the 
preceding case, but with a prominent protuberance at some 
point of its surface (see Fig. 30). 
More usually, however, it is a spherical body with a round 
cavity developed at some point within it. In this cavity is 
a greater or less number of hyphae, deeply stained for the 
most part and very conspicuous. The size and position of 
this cavity are very variable in ascocarps of the same size. In 
some the cavity is very small, is situated close to the surface 
of the cell, apparently coming to the surface at some point, 
and contains very few hyphae. Fig. 21 shows a case in which 
only a single hypha is present. Figs. 22, 23, 24 show 
instances in which only a few branching hyphae are developed. 
At the same time these figures show the varying positions of 
the cavity with reference to that of the stalk of the ascocarp, 
i.e. the main hypha from which the archicarp was developed. 
In other instances the cavity is much larger and contains 
many hyphae, some small and conspicuously stained and 
others larger and much vacuolated. The cavity then occupies 
a large part of the interior of the central cell, sometimes 
occupying it so fully that the latter is nothing more than 
a thin double envelope of varying thickness, and often very 
difficult to distinguish from some of the investing hyphae. 
Figs. 25-28 represent this stage in various degrees. 
The teased preparations show these examples much more 
clearly than the sections, since there is considerable confusion 
in the latter between the sections of the thinner parts of the 
central cell and the sections of the investing hyphae. The 
sections, however, show that in most cases in the cavity there 
