the Ascocarp in Monascus, 215 
close contact the transference of nourishment from the central 
cell can be carried out with much greater ease than by its 
passage from that organ through the whole length of the 
ascogenous hyphae to the growing-points. Of course in 
the older perithecia such close contact no longer obtains, 
the hyphae themselves forming a somewhat considerable 
mass, but it is noticeable that at comparatively late stages 
the central cavity seems still to owe its enlargement to the 
burrowing of the youngest hyphae into the central cell. 
An adequate explanation is thus furnished of a unique and 
mysterious perithecial structure. This view explains why 
the first formed ascogenous hyphae do not grow out through 
the gaps in the reticulum of investing hyphae, but remain 
closely attached to and hollowing out the central cell. This 
most important point is apparently inexplicable except by 
the hypothesis just suggested ; and thus fresh emphasis is 
laid upon the already well recognized idea that asci can only 
be formed by young and vigorous hyphae, which moreover 
can only be raised to and maintained in that condition by 
an abundant supply of nutriment. Perhaps some light is 
thrown on the nature of the required nutriment in this 
instance. The ascocarps are by no means always formed on 
aerial branches : indeed they are often completely submerged 
in the culture medium. When the food supply in this begins 
to get low, the formation of ascocarps begins. If it be the 
ordinary form of food that is required to keep the ascogenous 
hyphae in a sufficiently vigorous condition, why do they not 
grow out into the surrounding medium and obtain the avail- 
able food, instead of trusting to the more difficult mode of 
supply from the central cell? It seems as if the required 
nutriment is a substance or substances, manufactured by the 
fungus from the raw food material supplied by the sub- 
stratum. 
The view put forward here, then, is that Monascus is a 
simple sexual Ascomycete, showing the relationships to the 
higher forms that may be expected to exist between lowly 
and highly organized genera of common origin, and at the 
