SPORE FORMATION IN GEOGLOSUM GLABRUM PERS. 
HALLY D. M. JOLIVETTE. 
The method of delimitation of the ascospores in free cell for¬ 
mation has been found to he remarkably uniform in all the 
asci which have so far been carefully studied. We have here 
a problem of cell division, in which the protoplasm of the ascus 
or mother-cell, is separated into the protoplasm of the spores,— 
the spore-plasm,—and the enveloping epiplasm in which they 
are embedded. 
De Bary (10) as early as 1863 observed in certain species of 
Peziza, Helvetia and Morchella that the eight nuclei of the as¬ 
cus at the close of the third division come to lie about equidistant 
from each other. Ultimately each nucleus becomes surrounded 
by a mass of protoplasm, which, as he noted in living material, 
is distinguished from the remainder of the protoplasm by its 
greater transparency. These portions are the young spores and 
they soon become invested with cell membranes. De Bary gave 
the name epiplasm to the portion of the protoplasm not included 
in the spores. 
An essential feature in the process of spore delimitation, as 
described by Harper (25), is the transformation of the aster by 
the folding back of its rays to form an ellipsoidal cell plate. 
This implies an activity of the rays comparable, as Harper has 
shown, to that of cilia, and it is interesting to note the accumu¬ 
lation of evidence of resemblance between astral rays and cilia. 
It is generally agreed that, the axile threads of spermatozoa and 
the cilia of atherozoids arise from a centrosome or a centro- 
some-like blepharoplast. The same is true for the cilia of the 
swarmspores of Yaucheria and perhaps of Oedogonium. 
