132 Biffen . — On the Biology of 
adding an iodine solution, especially to sections of young 
ascophores, the gelatinous portion gave a pale blue or violet 
colour, while Schulze’s solution coloured it a faint violet 
lavender. The bluish colour was often emphasized by the 
bright golden-staining contents of some of the hyphae. 
On heating the sections in sealed tubes with concentrated 
caustic potash, and then treating with sulphuric acid and 
iodine, every portion gave the characteristic rose-red colour 
of the chitin test 1 , so that the carbonized and gelatinous 
walls and the plug at the apex of the ascus have all a 
chitin basis. 
The early stages in the development of the ascophore 
remind one to a certain extent of the life-history of some 
of the Pyrenomycetes, such for example as the Valsaceae 
or the Diatrypaceae among the Sphaeriaceae 2 . In these 
cases pycnoconidia (stylospores) are formed in conceptacles 
with walls of carbonized hyphae embedded in a stroma, and 
later these same conceptacles give rise to asci, and are then 
known as perithecia. 
In Bulgaria polymorpha we also find a stroma in which 
pycnoconidia are developed, so that if the homology be 
granted, its ascophore consists of a number of perithecia 
welded together by subsequent growth (Figs. 1 and 8), while 
the stroma is reduced to the loose hyphae traversing the 
‘veins’ and the apical portion of the ascophore which at 
first roofs over the hymenium. The hymenium itself in this 
case might be described as an overflow from the perithecia, 
the asci and paraphyses being carried out by the great 
development of gelatinous tissue in the perithecia, to form 
a regular layer above them instead of a number of isolated 
groups. Supposing, by way of another example, a series 
of similar changes to occur in a Xylaria , as a result we should 
have a Geoglossum. 
Additional interest to this comparison of Bulgaria and 
a Sphaeria is afforded by the fact that in both cases the 
1 Wisselingh, Prings. Jahrb., p. 619, 1898. 
2 Tulasne, Carpologia, tom. ii, p. 97 and p. 212, 1863. 
