conjluens and the Morphology of the Ascocarp. 385 
esting and suggestive. Thaxter (34, p. 253 ) considers that 
the Laboulbeniaceae may stand between Sphaerotheca and 
the red Algae. Pyronema , in the character of its trichogyne, 
stands closer to the red Algae than do the Laboulbeniaceae, 
but in its attached antheridial cell it is more like Sphaerotheca. 
Thaxter (34, p. 225 ) has described a very interesting series 
of modifications in the development of the trichogyne in the 
Laboulbeniaceae. In Stigmatomyces it is a single, one- 
nucleated cell without branches. In Peyritschiella , Amorpho- 
rnyces , and other genera, the one-celled trichogyne has branches 
shorter or longer, and more or less numerous. Other forms 
have multicellular trichogynes which may be simple or very 
abundantly branched ( Teratomyces). The extremities may be 
spirally twisted as in Compsomyces. In all cases the trichogyne 
is borne upon a special trichophoric cell which is thus inter¬ 
posed between it and the carpogonium which is to be fertilized. 
The conjugating apparatus is seen thus to consist of two 
independent cells in the simplest Laboulbeniaceae as com¬ 
pared with one cell in Pyronema (the trichogyne), and a simple 
tubular prolongation of the egg-cell in the red Algae such as 
Nemalion and Batrachospermum. Such forms as Teratomyces 
with multicellular branching trichogynes represent still more 
differentiated types in this particular than the Lichens, where 
it also seems probable that a trichophoric cell is interposed 
between the carpogonium proper and the trichogyne. 
The discovery of these extremely complex multicellular 
trichogynes of the Laboulbeniaceae, whose function as con¬ 
jugating organs cannot be questioned, and which are connected 
by forms of all stages of complexity with the simple one- 
nucleated trichogyne of the Stigmatomyces type, certainly 
removes all doubt as to the existence of structures which 
must be considered morphologically as multicellular conju¬ 
gating tubes. And the account of the breaking down of the 
walls and the migration of the male nuclei through the tricho¬ 
gyne of Pyronema given above furnishes the positive evidence 
that such conjugating tubes are the channels through which 
male pronuclei are conveyed to the egg-nuclei with which they 
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