196 Barker. — The Morphology and Development of 
The Systematic Position of Monascus. 
Before attempting to discuss this point, in view of the results 
described in this paper, it seems advisable to examine the 
possibility that the fungus examined by me may merely bear 
superficial resemblances to the species of Monascus described 
by other authors, belonging in reality to an altogether different 
type. 
Comparing it for the moment with M.purpureus , as described 
by Went, choosing this species on account of its more detailed 
description and illustration, the superficial resemblances 
between the two are extraordinarily pronounced, and, were 
not one in possession of the complete series of figures 
accompanying this paper, having instead in view merely such 
figures as Figs, ir, a-d\ 13, a ; 19, 33; representing inter- 
mediate and isolated stages, no hesitation would be felt in 
classing them together as members of the same genus or 
possibly even as identical Fungi. In each case the earliest 
stages of perithecial formation are represented by the forma- 
tion of two branches at the apex of a hypha, the one straight 
and obviously the terminal cell of the parent hypha, and the 
other arising immediately beneath and curving around it. 
Then follows the division of the curved branch, the ‘ascogoniunT 
as it has been termed above, by transverse septa into two (or, 
as Went has it, into three) cells, leaving out of account for the 
time being the fusion which Went did not observe. The 
difference in the number of cells into which the ascogonium 
is thus divided is not of importance at this point, seeing that 
occasionally I found that a septum is formed across the parent 
hypha a little below the ascogonium, thus cutting off a cell 
which acts in every way similarly to the * pedicel ’ cell of 
Went. After the division of the ascogonium by transverse 
septa the subsequent behaviour in both cases is for a time 
identical, this consisting in the swelling of the central or 
penultimate cell and the formation of investing hyphae from 
the ‘ pedicel ’ cell or the region of the parent hypha cor- 
responding to it. After the full development of the investing 
