conjluens and the Morphology of the Ascocarp . 361 
The paraphyses also show a limited apical growth, and 
having reached a height above the layer of ascogenous hyphae 
about equal to one-half the total thickness of the hypothecium, 
they also cease to grow in length and remain as a densely 
packed mass of parallel slender hyphae containing numerous 
minute nuclei in a vacuolated protoplasmic mass. They are 
septate and of about equal diameter throughout their entire 
length. 
The ascogenous hyphae follow such irregular paths from 
the ascogonium to the hymenium that it is impossible to 
follow any one of them continuously for any great distance in 
a single section. They appear in the sections at this stage 
cut transversely and longitudinally in fragments of various 
lengths. They can always be distinguished from the vegeta¬ 
tive hyphae with which they are intertwined by the size of 
the nuclei which they contain (Figs. 19, 20). The fusion- 
nuclei contained in the ascogenous hyphae have always a 
diameter two or three times as great as that of the nuclei of 
the vegetative hyphae. This makes the recognition of the 
ascogenous hyphae an easy matter, so that it is possible to 
trace their distribution anywhere in the fruit-body, as will 
be seen from Fig. 20. 
In the stages after fertilization, as the central mass of 
nuclei becomes more distributed and the number of nuclei 
in the ascogonium is reduced by their migration into the 
developing ascogenous hyphae, nuclei of smaller size are 
frequently found mingled with the larger fusion-nuclei (Figs. 
17 and 20). In some cases these smaller nuclei can also 
be found in the ascogenous hyphae (Fig. 20 a). They are 
the size of the original nuclei of the oogonium and antheri- 
dium. Fig. 22 shows an ascogonium in a stage when the 
young asci are forming, a little older than the stage shown 
in Fig. 20. The contrast in size of the nuclei still in the 
ascogonium is seen to be very striking. I am of the opinion 
that the smaller nuclei in this case represent supernumerary 
oogonial nuclei which have not been fertilized and are in¬ 
capable of further development. Their remaining unfertilized 
