557 
A sco carp in Lachnea cretea. 
including species of Ascobolus and Ascophanus (Cutting, ’09 ; Dodge, 12), 
where a series of ascogonial cells has been reported. Ascobolus furfuraceus 
(Welsford, ’07) may possibly be regarded as an intermediate form ; here 
several cells in the central region of the archicarp are united by pores, but 
ascogenous hyphae arise from only one. 
The trichogyne of Lachnea cretea shows several points in common with 
those described by Dodge for various species of Ascobolus and Ascophanus. 
It differs from these in its branched extremity and in the changes which 
take place in its transverse septa. 
Branched trichogynes are well known among the Laboulbeniales 
(Thaxter, ’96, ’08), but they have not been described elsewhere among the 
Ascomycetes. The arrangement in Lachnea cretea may represent, so to 
speak, a last effort to come into contact with an antheridium, or it may 
indicate the transformation of the trichogyne into a vegetative hypha. On 
the other hand, branching may very well have occurred when normal 
fertilization still took place. 
Lachnea cretea adds another to the series of discomycetous forms, the 
investigation of which in recent years has served to break down the distinc- 
tion previously drawn (Fraser and Chambers, ’07) between the archicarp of 
the Discomycetes on the one hand and that of the Pyrenomycetes and 
Lichens on the other. It is now clear that, whereas Pyronema confluens , 
Humaria granulata , and sundry other Discomycetes possess a spherical 
ascogonium which does not undergo septation, yet a number of forms as 
typically discomycetous show a septate ascogonial region. 
Moreover, in view of the very large pores found between the ascogonial 
cells, there seems no longer any reason to assume that, in normally fertilized 
forms, the ascogonial region was necessarily unicellular at the time of union 
of the male and female nuclei. For all practical purposes, the multicellular 
ascogonial region in Lachnea cretea is a single cell, and male nuclei could 
readily have passed from one end of it to the other. 
We have thus at present three types of discomycetous ascogonium : 
the single spherical cell which does not become septate (Pyronema), the 
single narrow cell which undergoes septation after fertilization or its 
equivalent (Ascodesmis), and the multicellular ascogonial region ( Lachnea 
cretea). There is evidence of relationship between the first two forms 
(Claussen, T2), the second being probably the more primitive and showing 
a closer resemblance to the presumably primitive Aspergilliaceae (Fraser 
and Chambers, ’07). The third is more difficult to place. 
Nevertheless, the morphology of Lachnea cretea does something to 
suggest a relationship between this type and the Plectascineae. When 
young, the archicarp of Lachnea cretea closely resembles that of Aspergillus 
herbariorum , but it becomes differentiated by the development of the long, 
septate trichogyne, and of the septate ascogonial region. Further, the struc- 
