206 Barker . — 7 "^ Morphology and Development of 
the ascogonium in the normal manner, further development 
taking place quite normally. Often, too, a normally produced 
antheridium, after functioning as such, proceeds to develop 
ordinary vegetative hyphae or conidia ; while, less often, even 
the ascogonium or, more accurately, the terminal cell of the 
ascogonium behaves similarly. There is thus shown a want 
of constancy in the position of development and in the 
specialization of the sexual organs which seems to point to 
their primitive nature, as compared with the more strongly 
defined archicarps of other Ascomycetes. 
The mature ascocarp is also in reality of very simple 
structure. While apparently a cleistocarp, as in theErysipheae, 
it is actually only of that nature because of the curious 
development of the central cell. The exterior investment of 
hyphae is very incomplete and scanty, and the whole of the 
hyphae within the ascocarp are ascogenous and arise from 
the fertilized ascogonium. The extent of the development 
of the ascogenous hyphae themselves is also very small, 
speaking comparatively, and variable, and the same holds 
good for the number of asci. 
The sexuality of the archicarp is also little developed. 
The male and female organs arise not only from the same 
hypha, but also from the same cell of it, and therefore pro- 
bably the male and female nuclei have their origin from the 
same nucleus or nuclei with the intervention of but few 
generations. The method of reproduction by conidia is also 
very simple. No specialized conidiophores are developed, 
any hypha being capable of producing conidia, these being 
formed simply by the formation of a wall just behind the 
apex of the hypha and the swelling of the terminal cell thus 
cut off. 
The primitive nature of the ascocarp has just been men- 
tioned. Leaving out of account the complexity introduced 
by the behaviour of the enlarged central cell, it is clear that 
the asci must be regarded as being devoid of a complete 
investment of sterile hyphae. The comparatively feeble 
development of investing hyphae would be quite insufficient 
