the Ascocarp in A scophanus carneus , Pers. 401 
cultures. On the appearance of Miss Fraser’s paper on Lachnea stercorea 
( 14 ), in which she describes the germination of the spores of this fungus 
after treatment with alkaline solutions, it was determined to make more 
experiments and under divers conditions. De Bary ( 13 ) had observed that 
both acid and alkaline media were sometimes useful in inducing the germi- 
nation of spores which, under ordinary conditions, could not be made to 
germinate, so in making solutions, alkaline, acid, and neutral fluids were 
employed, and the effect of different temperatures was noted as well. 
Extracts of rabbit’s dung and of prunes were used, and also water. In 
only one case was a germination observed in an acid medium, although both 
in acid and neutral solutions the spores were often observed to become 
more transparent, and a number of vacuoles were noticed inside them, these 
phenomena being the preliminaries to germination. These changes were 
observed in spores which had been subjected to a fairly high temperature, 
38° or 40° C., for a few days. The processes of germination, however, got no 
further except in the one case mentioned above. 
In the alkaline solutions, however, the spores easily germinated over-night, 
and this process took place more quickly at higher than at lower tempera- 
tures, so that a greater percentage of spores would germinate over-night in 
a high-temperature culture, 38° C. or 40° C., than in a lower temperature 
culture (30° C.). 
No very exact experiments were tried, the only object being to obtain 
pure cultures of the fungus ; but the results obtained seem to show that the 
germination of the spores depends on the softening process of the alkaline 
media on the wall, and that this latter process was hastened by an increase 
in temperature. 
The attempt to obtain pure cultures was not successful. In the alkaline 
media the mycelium only grew to about \ inch long, and then died away, 
probably overcome by the bacteria which could not be kept out of these 
cultures. The germinating spores were also removed to acid media, or acid 
agar-agar extract of rabbit’s dung, but in all cases the mycelium soon 
perished. 
The spores usually put out two germ tubes, one at each end of the 
spore, and in some cases a transverse wall was formed in the middle 
of the spore, so that the two germ tubes were to some extent independent 
of each other. This wall-formation is comparable to the formation of 
transverse walls such as are found in the ascospores of many ascomycetes, 
such as Sphaerulina , Coryne , &c., but here the wall-formation does not take 
place in the ascus, but is delayed until after the earlier stages of germination 
are passed. 
It was observed in several cases that as a preliminary to the stopping 
of germination by adverse causes, the protoplasm from the different cells of 
the mycelium collected either in one cell of the hypha or in the spore itself, 
