the Ascocarp in Ascophanus carneits, Pers. 409 
of the ascogonium seem capable of giving rise to ascogenous hyphae. The 
two or three cells nearest the tip-portion of the archicarp were more usually 
found in this condition than those in any other portion of the ascogonium, 
and the balance of evidence seems in favour of the view that all the asco- 
gonial cells are potentially capable of giving off these hyphae, but that 
usually those ascogenous hyphae which are formed from the tip-cells are 
found sufficient for the purpose of emptying the whole ascogonium of 
its contents, and that therefore the two or three lowest cells do not usually 
form ascogenous hyphae of their own, but pass on their protoplasm and 
nuclei to those cells that do. It is possible, however, that all of these 
ascogonial cells usually give off ascogenous hyphae. 
Dangeard (10) is of the opinion that in Ascobolus the nuclei of all the 
archicarp cells, except the central cell, degenerate. The very open com- 
munication between the ascogonial cells, and the fact that ascogenous 
hyphae are given off by more than one cell in Ascophanus carneus , makes it 
seem very unlikely that any such phenomenon should occur in this species. 
This point, nevertheless, received careful consideration, and in no ascogonium 
was any evidence of such a wholesale degeneration of nuclei obtained. 
It does, indeed, often happen that some nuclei are left behind in the asco- 
gonium (Figs. 21 a and b , 22) after the development of the ascogenous 
hyphae, and that these undergo a process of degeneration ; but these nuclei 
are about equally distributed amongst the cells of the ascogonium and not 
situated in any special cell or cells. Miss Welsford (27) has already denied 
the degeneration of the nuclei of the cells on either side of the central cell 
of Ascobolus furfur aceus^ and my observations are against the occurrence of 
any such phenomenon in Ascophanus carneus. 
The ascogenous hyphae when first formed are full of dense proto- 
plasm which contains numerous nuclei. Harper (21), in his paper on 
Phyllactinia , attempted to account for the series of binucleate cells in the 
ascogenous hyphae of certain ascomycetous fungi by comparing the nuclear 
fusion in the ascus with that in the basidium. Because of this theory 
special attention was paid to these hyphae to try and find whether any such 
series of binucleate cells could be found in this form, and if so, in what 
manner it was brought about. No such series, however, was found, and the 
nuclei in the newly-formed hyphae seemed to be quite irregularly arranged. 
Since the appearance of Claussen’s preliminary note on Pyronema (8) — 
in which the author claims that the male and female nuclei do not fuse in 
the ascogonium, but enter the ascogenous hyphae in pairs, and that their 
descendants fuse to form the primary ascus nucleus — the search has been 
renewed, and other series of sections have been examined, but with the 
same result. The nuclei are not arranged in pairs, except at the formation 
of the asci. The ascogenous hyphae, when they have grown out to some 
little distance, form septa, and the major part of the protoplasm is aggregated 
F f 2 
