6 o 4 
Note . 
most prominent hyphae had developed into slender filaments bearing lateral branches; 
and subsequently all the processes gave rise to normal mycelium. 
If water preparations of Botrytis conidiophores be maintained for some days, 
clustered hyphal growths originating in wounded sporogenous tips and identical with 
that noted above are not rare. The development of such structures by the more usual 
regenerative processes has not been observed, and it does not appear improbable that 
they may arise in the same manner as the one described. 
The protoplasm of the sporogenous tips of the conidiophores exists in an 
extremely active and plastic condition, this being exemplified by its immense regenera¬ 
tive capacity ; and, as is evident in the present specimen, this protoplasm is able, 
under certain conditions and for a period of time, to live and grow when part of its 
surface is in a free plasmodial state, and only subsequently enclosed in a cell-wall. 
If this potentiality be not restricted to the fruiting hyphae of Botrytis cinerea , 
but be distributed widely among the Fungi, and in particular be an attribute of the 
vegetative mycelium of pathogenic forms, it will have an important bearing upon 
general ideas of fungal morphology. 
That there is no inherent impossibility in the growth and development of naked 
protoplasm is evident in the existence of the Protozoa and Myxomycetes. Even in the 
Fungi proper there are forms, such as many Synchytriaceae, in which the organisms 
live for the greater part of their life as protoplasmic masses free from any enclosing 
cell-membrane. In the Bacteria, organisms probably of a degenerate fungal nature, 
evidence has recently been presented 1 2 of a free plasmodial or ‘ symplastic ’ state. 
In a research on the behaviour and morphology of the vegetative mycelium of 
Botrytis cinerea in the tissues of Aesculus Pavia , which is now being prepared for 
publication, it was found that certain of the hyphae were in a naked condition, exist¬ 
ing as free protoplasmic substance. 
Finally it may be noted that for years the Swedish school of phytopathologists 
have persistently maintained the conception of mycoplasm, and quite recently Eriksson 
has used his hypothesis in the elucidation of the many problems of the causation of 
the potato blight by Phytophthora infestans? Mycoplasm involves far more than the 
mere existence of fungus protoplasm in a naked state, and the merging and subse¬ 
quent dissociation of the individualities of host and fungus, which is the vital part of 
this hypothesis, must still be regarded as ‘ non-proven ’. It would seem, however, 
somewhat injudicious merely to ignore every aspect of this idea or summarily dismiss 
it as impossible, for in the light of what has been written above it may be that buried 
beneath much interpretation there is a basis of fact. 
Laboratory of Plant Pathology, 
Royal Botanic Gardens, 
Kew. 
WILLIAM B. BRIERLEY. 
1 Lohnis, F., and Smith, N. R.: Journ. Agr. Res., vol. vi, 1916. 
2 Eriksson, J.: Rev. Gen. Bot., tome 30, 1918. 
