355 
the Ascocarp in Lachnea stercorea ) Pers. 
In these particulars Lachnea stercorea resembles Humaria , whereas 
in Pyronema the fusions all take place at about the same time, and the 
paired nuclei are aggregated in the centre of the ascogonium. This 
aggregation is, no doubt, as Harper ( 16 ) suggests, a provision for the 
pairing of the male and female nuclei with the greatest certainty and 
dispatch, and it is obviously unnecessary in Humaria , where all the nuclei 
are presumably of equal value. The method of fusion in L. stercorea, 
therefore, may be regarded as additional evidence of the reduced nature of 
fertilization in this fungus. 
The early contact stages of fusion cannot be recognized with certainty, 
but, apart from these, more than eighteen nuclear fusions were observed. 
The number of nuclei in the ascogonium is very considerable, and 
seems to increase with the increasing size of that organ. In order to 
obtain some idea of the number of nuclei at various stages, the nuclei 
were counted, in a few cases in a series of sections of an ascogonium or 
trichogyne, with the following results : — 
Young uncovered ascogonium, 267. Unicellular trichogyne, 37. 
Ascogonium, branching just begun, Trichogyne of Fig. 9. 
536. Terminal cell, 43; lower cells, 20. 
Trichogyne nearly covered by sheath. 
Terminal cell, 36 ; lower cells, 25. 
Trichogyne of Fig. 12. 
Terminal cell, 86 ; lower cells, 40. 
The vacuolate antheridium, continuous with the trichogyne shown in 
Fig. 12, contained another twenty nuclei, and probably several of the 
closely packed nuclei in the terminal cell are also antheridiak 
The above numbers are of course only roughly approximate, especially 
as the older ascogonia must contain several fusion nuclei ; but it is evident 
from them that the nuclei of the ascogonium divide. Material was there- 
fore fixed, at various hours of the day and night, in the hopes of finding 
such divisions. In a few cases indications of a spindle were seen, but the 
object was too small and too indistinct to be considered conclusive. 
Sporophyte. Soon after the sheathing hyphae have grown up about 
the ascogonium branching begins. The ascogonial branches are of con- 
siderable size (Fig. 14) and often grow out freely beyond the investing cells. 
They contain numerous large, well-defined nuclei, the product, no doubt, of 
the fusions in the ascogonium. 
Eventually the ascogonium becomes emptied of its contents, though 
a little cytoplasm and a few nuclei may be observed at quite a late stage 
(Fig. 19). The lower parts of the ascogenous hyphae also become emptied, 
and by the time that the spores are formed, both they and the ascogonium 
have disappeared. The contents of the trichogyne, as development pro- 
