coyiftuens and the Morphology of the Ascocarp. 387 
may be that the increased certainty of fertilization assured 
in this fashion is the condition which has enabled the plants 
possessed of trichogynes to dispense with motility in their 
male cells. 
While it may be regarded as established that the general 
similarity between the sexual reproduction in the Ascomycetes 
and the red Algae as pointed out by De Bary (12, pp. 86-88) 
exists, still in my opinion it is of no special value at this time 
to attempt to establish, from the forms which have been 
worked out, just how an evolutionary transition may have 
developed the Ascomycetes from the Algae. More forms 
must be investigated, and then at best the proof will probably 
be inconclusive. It is plain that the Ascomycetes resemble 
the red Algae more than they do the lower Fungi \ but 
whether these resemblances are a result of blood relationship, 
or are merely due to that similarity in the chemical consti¬ 
tution of the protoplasm of different organisms, which under 
similar conditions enables it to develop structures nearly 
related in appearance out of rudiments which may be extremely 
diverse, is likely to remain a puzzling question. 
I have shown elsewhere that there is no sufficient evidence 
that the sporangium of the Moulds has been evolved into 
the ascus of the higher Fungi, and that hence any classi¬ 
fication which connects the two groups on the basis of an 
assumed relationship between these structures is purely 
artificial and formal. On the other hand there is as yet no 
direct evidence of the transformation of the cystocarp with its 
carpospores into the ascocarp with its ascospores formed by 
free cell-formation, and hence the attempt to form a natural 
classification in which the one group is regarded as repre¬ 
senting the source of the other is premature at least. For 
the present we must be content to allow the Ascomycetes 
to stand alone, with the hope that the thorough investigation 
of all the types in the group itself as well as the forms of 
1 De Bary’s ( 12 , pp. 109-119) view of the relationship of Sphaerotheca to the 
Peronosporeae was based on a want of knowledge of the structure of the mature 
ascogonium in the former and need not be further discussed. 
' D d 2 
