the Ascocarp in Monascus . 227 
Hemiasci (2). It is now generally accepted as belonging to 
the latter group. It is characterized by a septate mycelium, 
intercalary cells of which swell up and clothe themselves 
with a thick wall, forming chlamydospores. They germinate 
by the bursting of the outer wall and the escape of the proto- 
plasmic contents, surrounded by a wall. The contents of the 
cell thus extruded are multinucleate, and arrange themselves 
in a wall layer dividing up into spores, which eventually collect 
at the tip of the elongated cell thus converted into a sporan- 
gium by their division. Popta (17) has recently shown that 
no periplasm is produced during the division into spores, and 
accordingly regards the genus as being nearer to the Phyco- 
mycetes than Ascoidea, in which he finds periplasm produced, 
and therefore regards it as approaching the Ascomycetes. The 
chlamydospores of Protomyces resemble in appearance the 
intercalary ripened oogonia of Pythium and many Perono- 
sporaceae. As De Bary (5) has shown, the latter are often 
fertilized by an antheridium formed from the cell immediately 
beneath or above, the fertilization taking place through the 
wall separating the two cells. The figures of the early stages 
of chlamydospore formation in Protomyces given by De Bary (7) 
and Brefeld (2) show that the cells on either side of the young 
chlamydospore are filled with dense protoplasm, so that these 
structures may be looked upon as representing the intercalary 
oogonia and antheridia of the above-mentioned Oomycetes. 
There is certainly no evidence of any fusion between these 
structures through the separating wall, but it may easily have 
been overlooked, as has happened in the cases of many Asco- 
mycetes, where the fusion is only of sufficient size to allow the 
passage of a nucleus. The nuclear behaviour during the 
chlamydospore formation is entirely unknown at present, so 
that it is impossible to do more here than point out the 
resemblance to the intercalary sexual organs of the Oomycetes. 
But if it prove to be the case that the chlamydospore is 
sexually produced, it must then be regarded as an oospore, 
and we should have a member of the Hemiasci which retains 
its oospore stage. It would then have to be regarded as an 
Q 2 
