confluens and the Morphology of the Ascocarp . 331 
of his reliance upon antiquated methods of preparation. 
Dangeard assumes that the nuclear fusions in the ascus 
are much more easy to find than those in the oogonium. 
This is true for the larger cup-fungi where scores of asci 
can be mounted in a single preparation, since the larger 
number increases proportionally the chances of finding the 
particular stage in question, but it is not true in Sphaerotheca , 
where each ascocarp produces only a single ascus. I have 
found it just as easy to discover the conjugation-pore and true 
sexual fusion of the male and female nuclei in Sphaerotheca 
as to find sections showing the nuclear fusion in the ascus. 
Dangeard evidently considers the fact that the male nucleus 
is smaller than the egg-nucleus prior to the conjugation, 
as evidence that the former is degenerating. He also regards 
it as an inconsistency in my figures that the male nucleus 
at the time of fusion with the egg-nucleus has become as 
large as the latter. It should not, however, be necessary 
to point out to a student of fertilization-phenomena that 
it is an extremely common condition in both plants and 
animals to find not only the nucleus, but the entire male 
cell at certain stages much reduced in volume, and that 
it is not at all uncommon to find that the sperm-nucleus 
has increased in volume at the time when it unites with 
the egg-nucleus. 
Miss Nichols (25) has also investigated the development 
of the ascocarps in a number of Pyrenomycetes. If one 
judges by the impression produced on her reviewers, Miss 
Nichols’s results, so far as the question of sexuality in the 
forms she investigated is concerned, must be regarded as 
somewhat ambiguous. Sydow considers that Miss Nichols’s 
observations revealed not a trace of sexuality in the forms 
investigated (!), while Wager (40, p. 584 ) states that her 
work distinctly supports the view that sexuality is present. 
Miss Nichols’s account of the development of the asco¬ 
carp of Teichospora and Teichosporella by the division of 
a single hyphal cell to form an oval parenchymatous mass 
is certainly very interesting. As I understand her description 
