confluens and the Morphology of the Ascocarp . 373 
not improbable that further investigation will show connecting 
links between these forms, but that is entirely a matter for 
investigation rather than speculation. 
Van Tieghem also suggests ( 37 , p. 1142) that the swollen 
oogonium and the antheridium in Pyronema are only reser¬ 
voirs of stored food material brought together by the hyphae 
at certain points in anticipation of unusual outlay in rapid 
growth during fruit-formation. In view of the behaviour 
of the nuclei of these cells as I have described it above this 
interpretation becomes quite inadequate. Female sexual cells 
are commonly well stored with reserve food-materials, but no 
one will seriously contend that they are to be explained 
merely as reservoirs for storage. 
Van Tieghem's hypothesis was without foundation on the 
evidence which had already been submitted by Kihlmann, 
who showed that only the ascogenous hyphae are developed 
from the specially swollen cell, while the whole hypothecium 
and paraphyses arise from mycelial cells below the sexual 
apparatus. Bauke had already pointed out that the asci 
are nourished from the paraphyses, and all observers had 
agreed that the ascogonium withers at a relatively early 
stage. Surely it was unreasonable to assume that an organ 
specially developed as a reservoir of nutrition should fail 
midway in the completion of its function, not even serving 
in its later stages as an avenue for the conduction of new 
food-materials to the asci. It seems not too much to claim 
that the opponents of sexuality in such forms as Pyronema 
seem to have been bent on overlooking the more obvious 
facts in the interest of ingenious but unreasonable hypotheses. 
The investigation of the sexuality of the Fungi has become 
involved to an unusual degree in the personal animosities 
of rival investigators, and as a result De Bary’s pre-eminence, 
as the first who attained the technical skill necessary for 
grappling with the problem, has been too little recognized. 
De Bary and his pupils brought together a greater mass 
of accurate and detailed observations on the life-histories of 
the forms in question than any or all of the opponents 
