Nuclear Phenomena in the Smuts. 
483 
The germination of the spores and fusion of the conidia of the 
anther smut have been very fully described by Brefeld. 1 The 
spores germinate in a few hours in beerwort. The single spore 
nucleus divides and one of the two daughter nuclei wanders 
into the germ tube (Figs. 8 and 9). The other remains in the 
spore and develops no further during the formation of the first 
promycelium. For demonstrating the nuclei in the thick walled 
spores at this stage, a methyl green stain was found preferable 
to the triple stain of Flemming. A one per cent, solution was 
used with exposure for a few minutes. Brefeld reports that 
the spores when germinated in water produce series of promy- 
celia; but that when grown in nutrient solutions they produce 
but one promycelium, which, however, produces a very large 
number of conidia. In the most of my cultures, however, which 
were made in rather dilute beerwort, series of promycelia were 
thrown off, all of which produced abundant conidial buds. 
When the promycelium has reached about two-thirds of its adult 
length its nucleus divides, and a cross wall is at once built be¬ 
tween the two daughter nuclei (Fig. 10). As the promycelium 
continues to develop the nucleus of the distal cell again divides, 
and a cell wall is built between the two nuclei, the apical cell 
so cut off being generally smaller than the one below it (Fig. 
11). Conidia are now budded off in abundance from all three 
cells, and the promycelium itself soon drops off from the spore 
which immediately produces a second promycelium at the same 
spot. This may be followed by a third, and so on. How many 
such promycelia can be formed from a single spore, I have not 
attempted to determine. Doubtless the spore nourishes itself 
from the beerwort as do the promycelia in producing the coni¬ 
dia. Each so produced promycelium continues to bud off coni¬ 
dia indefinitely or as long as the medium contains sufficient 
nutriment. 
After falling off from the promycelium the conidia bud like 
yeast cells, forming small colonies (Figs. 11, 12, and 13), as do 
the conidia of most of the smuts. By transferring the conidia 
and promycelia to fresh beerwort the process can be kept up 
indefinitely. Each conidium is uninucleate and this nucleus di- 
1 Loc. cit., pp. 36-54. 
