•') 
Perithecium of Poly stigma rubrum , DC, 763 
Spermogonia. These arise from a group of interwoven unthickened 
hyphae found usually beneath a stoma. From this mass there develops 
the flask-shaped spermogonium (Fig. 6), which is often large enough to 
extend across the leaf from one epidermis to the other. The periphery of 
the spermogonium is formed of densely interwoven hyphae and is lined 
internally by the spermatia-bearing hyphae. The spermatia are borne 
terminally on these hyphae, which, like the spermatia, are uninucleate ; 
but while the nuclei of the special hyphae are only slightly elongated, 
those of the spermatia become very long and narrow (Fig. 8 c). The 
spermatial nucleus appears at maturity as a narrow band, staining nearly 
homogeneously and occupying the lower half or two-thirds of the cell (Figs. 
8 a and 8 b). The spermatia narrow at their free ends and show the 
peculiar curvature which has been described by earlier workers (Figs. 7 
and 8). The nucleus appears in many cases to undergo early disorganiza- 
tion, for it may show a nodulose appearance (Fig. 8 a) while the spermatia 
are still enclosed within the spermogonium. The spermatia are carried out 
of the spermogonium by a mucilaginous material which oozes from the 
mouth of that organ, and thus the spermatia become distributed over the 
surface of the leaf. 
No relation of any kind was observed between the spermatia and the 
female reproductive organs, and attempts to bring about the germination 
of the spermatia ended, like those of Fisch, in failure. The spermatia 
must, then, be considered functionless structures, like the similarly named 
structures in the Uredineae. 
Ascogonia. 1 These structures develop from the rapidly growing ends 
of ordinary hyphae ; they were multinucleate in the earliest stages observed 
(Fig. 9), This hypha soon becomes curved and septate (Fig. 10), and 
gradually assumes the more or less closely coiled appearance of the mature 
ascogonium (Figs. 11, 12, and 13). Surrounding each ascogonium is a mass 
of small-celled hyphae, which are uninucleate, and with walls slightly 
thickened. There is a great variety in the length of the ascogonia and 
their degree of ‘coiling’ (Figs. 12 and 13). One end of the ascogonium, 
the base, usually can be traced into a vegetative hypha, while the other 
ends freely in the mycelial mass (Figs. 12 and 13). A simple slightly 
coiled ascogonium is shown highly magnified in Fig. 12, and a more com- 
plicated one is drawn on a smaller scale in Fig. 13. 
The ascogonia are usually found in the neighbourhood of a stomata 
(PI. LXX, Fig. 11, and PI. LXXI, Fig. 14), and the stoma shows the 
1 Owing to the abortive nature of these coiled structures designated ascogonia by Fisch, it is 
impossible to say whether, primitively, they were wholly ascogonial in nature, or whether they 
represent archicarps of which only a portion was fertile, i. e. gave origin to the ascogenous hyphae. 
Under these circumstances the older name, ascogonium, may be retained, although by analogy with 
other cases (e. g. Lichens) we should expect the terminal portions of the coil to be sterile in nature, 
when the term archicarp would more fittingly describe them as a whole. 
