120 
Biffen. — On the Biology of 
I quote the description given by Massee 1 : ‘ Ascophores 
gregarious or caespitose, erumpent, at first more or less 
clavate, closed, rusty-brown, and scurfy, the disc gradually 
expanding and becoming plane or slightly convex, black and 
shining, externally umber-brown, wrinkled and scurfy, tur- 
binate and narrowed into a short, stout, stem-like base, which 
is mostly buried in the substance of the host, 1-4 cm. across, 
and the same in height, gelatinous, flesh brown ; asci 
cylindric-clavate, narrowed below into a long slender base, 
usually only containing four perfectly developed spores ; 
spores i-seriate, continuous, elliptical slightly curved, 1-2 gut- 
tulate, brown at maturity, 10-14 x 5-6 /x ; paraphyses 
slender, slightly thickened, brownish, and more or less 
curved at the tips.’ 
In its gelatinous texture Bulgaria resembles the Tremel- 
lineae to such an extent, that a very similar species, B. sar- 
coides , was for some time considered to be a Tremella , and 
when the ascomycetous nature of the Fungus was proved 
it was considered by some to be a form connecting together 
the Discomycetes and Tremellineae. 
The morphology of B. polymorpha was worked out in some 
detail by Tulasne 2 , and served him as a good example of 
a pleomorphic species at a time when little was known of the 
various spore-forms of the Ascomycetes. By observing 
specimens at different periods of the year Tulasne was able 
to show that at one time they produced pycno-conidia and 
spermatia, and then ascospores, which on germination gave 
rise to a conidial stage ; that is, one and the same Fungus 
was capable of giving rise to four essentially different sets 
of spores. Brefeld 3 has further studied the germination of 
the ascospores and the conidia formed from them. 
p. 472 ; Tulasne, Ann. d. sci. nat., 3® ser., tom. xx, p. 164; Brefeld, Unters. aus 
d. Gesammtgeb. d. Mykol., 1891, Heft x, Ascomyceten, ii ; Hussey, Illustr. Brit. 
Myc., PL XXXII. 
1 Massee, Brit. Fung. Flora, vol. iv, p. 140, 1893. 
2 Tulasne, Ann. d. sci. nat., 3® ser., tom. xx, p. 164, 1853 ; Tulasne, Carpologia, 
tom. iii, p. 192, 1863 ; Tulasne, Bot. Zeit., p. 54, 1853. 
3 Brefeld, Heft x, Ascomyceten, ii, p. 301. 
