520 Fischer .-—The Biology of A r miliaria muci da, Schrader. 
II. Ammonium nitrate . . . * , 2-5 gr. 
Potassium phosphate 1-25 gr. 
Magnesium sulphate -25 gr. 
Citric acid *5 gr. 
Water . 250 cc. 
These were used either as jelly, when 25 gr. of gelatine were added, or 
in the liquid form. 
The permanent cultures were started either by sowing the spores 
directly on the substratum or by inoculation from other obviously pure 
cultures. 
Germination and Subsequent Growth. 
In hanging drops of pure water, prune extract, or beer-wort jelly, 
as well as in Petri-dishes in beer-wort jelly, the spores germinated abun- 
dantly and at once, i. e. in less than twenty-four hours. Placed in the 
solution one morning they were found with germ-tubes on the following 
morning, twenty-one hours later. No germ-pore was to be distinguished in 
the spore-wall, and the germ-tube did not emerge at any fixed point, but in 
varying positions on the several spores. Prior to germination the spores 
became vacuolated. On germination the vacuoles enlarge, and the proto- 
plasmic contents of the spore pass into the germ-tube (Fig. 6). The 
protoplasm advances with the end of the hypha, which becomes septate and 
empty behind. The hyphae produced in pure water, however, formed few 
septa. 
In addition to spores small pieces from the interior of the stipe and the 
cap of a sporophore were placed on jelly in a Petri-dish. New growth of 
hyphae appeared from both in two days (Fig. 7). 
A small section of the gill of a fruit body was suspended in a hanging 
drop ; a few spores were scattered among the basidia. These spores germi- 
nated and put out normal hyphae, and the basidia and paraphyses also grew 
out into curiously branching and distorted and multi-septate hyphae 
(Figs. 8 and 9). 
For the first day or two after germination the hyphae remain 
unbranched, but then fork and ramify rapidly. The hyphae often fuse 
at the points of contact. There is a marked contrast in the habit of growth 
when there is sufficiency or deficiency of moisture. In the first case the 
hyphae are thick, long, and but little branched ; when too dry they remain 
fine, shorter, and much branched (Figs. 10 and 11). The hyphae often 
assume somewhat fantastic shapes : abruptly and angularly branched 
(Fig. 12), or, on the contrary, gracefully curled (Fig. 13). 
In the Petri-dishes the mycelium soon showed above the surface of the 
jelly as a perfectly white felt, which spread rapidly till it covered the 
whole surface. In course of time, about twenty-five days, the mycelium 
