212 Barker.— The Morphology and Development of 
so considerably in the structure of the archicarp and of the 
mature ascocarp, the processes leading to the formation of the 
latter correspond very closely in the two forms and suggest 
a common origin : and if the cytological behaviour of the 
former is characteristic of the other Pezizineae, Peziza scutel - 
lata is still more closely allied on account of its simpler 
archicarp. 
The Sphaeriales also seem to be allied in a somewhat 
similar manner. Woronin (30) has described structures in 
Sphaeria Lemaneae and Sordaria fimiseda which must be 
regarded as the archicarps of these forms. The ascogonium 
is an enlarged spherical cell, to which is closely applied 
a smaller hypha, arising in the former from another and in 
the latter from the same branch of the mycelium, which seems 
to be the antheridial branch. Around these numerous coiled 
hyphae arising from the neighbouring portions of the myce- 
lium grow closely applied, and a small spherical mass is thus 
formed. By the further development of this the characteristic 
perithecia are produced. The behaviour of the archicarp 
during this development is unknown, but it is surmised by 
analogy with Pyronema and other forms that it corresponds 
to a certain degree with these. If this be the case, the rela- 
tionship suggested between the latter and Monascus would 
also hold good for them and other Sphaeriales. 
These considerations point to the view that Monascus repre- 
sents a low and comparatively simple type of Ascomycete and 
is not far removed from a common ancestral type, from which 
all the higher Ascomycetes may be supposed to have sprung. 
The latter are separated into distinct families by the structure 
of the mature ascocarp only, and there seems to be no essential 
difference in the nature of the reproductive organs themselves. 
The discovery of the archicarp or of vestiges of this structure 
in members of the different groups seems to indicate that the 
ancestral Ascomycetes possessed functional sexual organs, 
the ascogonium and the antheridium, the fertilization of the 
former by the latter resulting in the development of asci by 
the formation of a more or less complicated system of asco- 
