Fischer.— The Biology of Ar miliaria mucida , Schrader. 521 
assumed an orange hue underneath. Here, as well as in the cultures on 
jelly in flasks, the jelly was soon liquefied, showing that the fungus exudes 
some enzyme capable of liquefying gelatine. No crystals were formed 
as occurs with Cor dy ceps in jelly. 
In most of the cultures clamp-connexions appeared on the hyphae 
(Figs. 14 and 15); in some cases in abundance. They were also seen 
in the stipe of a carpophore grown in pure culture, and in one case on 
a hypha in a wood vessel. This traverses Brefeld’s assertion : ‘ . . . ohne 
Schnallen . . . ’ (2). 
No further changes were observable in any of the jelly cultures, 
whether in dishes or in flasks, or in hanging drops, or in any of the fluids 
experimented with. No fruit bodies or reproductive organs of any kind 
presented themselves. It would seem, therefore, that A. mucida is devoid 
of all form of conidia, a conclusion not altogether unexpected. In one 
rather doubtful case, in a hanging drop of water, something recalling oidia 
formation took place. The chamber had been allowed to dry and was 
nearly devoid of moisture, and the hyphae broke up into short lengths. 
This, however, was in one corner only, and I was unable to separate the 
short rods and test them for germinative power. Though I attach no 
importance to the occurrence, the fact is here stated for what it is worth. 
The rods are delineated in Fig. 16. 
Attempts were made to stimulate the mycelium to produce conidia by 
altering the nutriment, but in vain. The amount of moisture, too, was 
varied ; in one case the mycelium being allowed eventually to dry up 
altogether. The kind and quantity of acid was changed, lactic, gallic, and 
even oxalic acid being tried. With 0-4 per cent, of the last named the 
fungus grew just as well as in any of the other solutions. 
Spores were also sown in the liquid solutions detailed previously. 
Though they gravitated to the bottom of the test-tubes, they neverthe- 
less germinated, and the mycelium eventually made its way to the surface 
of the liquid, where it formed a dense felting. 
An attempt was made to grow the fungus from spores, and also the 
mycelium from another culture, on sterilized elm twigs. No infection took 
place in spite of repetition, which apparently indicates considerable speciali- 
zation in favour of beech. 
As already stated no difficulty was met with in the germination of the 
spores when fresh. Some observations were made with regard to the 
endurance of germinative power. A cap obtained from a beech tree in 
Windsor Park was placed in a sterilized Petri-dish on November 20, and 
spores were shed on it, after which the cap itself was removed. The spores 
in the dish were kept quite dry, and were tested from time to time. By 
December 29 they had suffered already, for they no longer germinated 
at once, but took ten days to produce germ-tubes. Spores sown in fluid on 
