256 
ON THE PILOBOLIDiE. 
Klein lias attributed to the species named after him that 
its spores, under certain conditions, gave rise to a Mucor, in 
fact to two distinct species of Mucor; * * * § but it is obvious that 
his experiments were quite untrustworthy and misleading in 
this respect, and Van Tiegliem has finally disposed of the 
claim by his observation that the spores of P. Kleinii will not 
germinate at all under the conditions which Klein employed. 
Coemans has described and figured a conidial fructification 
produced from branched liyplne, growing on the basal reser¬ 
voir of P. oedipus; the conidia were orange(?), oval or oval- 
fusiform, 7—18^. long; other authors have considered that 
these did not really belong to the Pilobolus, but this is not 
certain. 
Saccardo f describes and figures clilamydospores of 
P. oedipus, from New Jersey, U.S.A., which he considers 
identical with the Mycotjone anceps figured by Coemans ; J 
they are “globose, 20//, in diameter, or ovoid, 30—35^ by 
20^, often septate below, and slightly constricted, granular 
within, orange. Hypliae dichotomous or loosely branched, 
creeping, septate, yellow.” § 
Roze and Cornu || found stellate clilamydospores on 
P. crystallinus, which were borne on short lateral recurved 
branches of the mycelium within the matrix; membrane 
thick and yellowish. Van Tieghem, finding similar bodies in 
P. nanus , placed the physical continuity of the clilamydospores 
with the Pilobolus beyond a doubt; their diameter varied 
from 15—20 p. The clilamydospores of which Coemans 
speaks, which I have also met with, belong to an Ascobolus. 
No zygotes have yet been discovered in Pilobolus. The 
organs mentioned by De Bary doubtfully under this name 11 
are of another kind. 
o. —Habitats. 
The species of Pilobolus are found chiefly on the various 
kinds of dung, though also on other decaying substances ; 
and on mud containing probably a quantity of putrefying 
matter. Baker found his on the black mud of the 
Thames; Scopoli describes his specimens as growing on 
the larvae of Sphinx Atropos, preserved in soil; Cohn 
discovered P. oedipus on a layer of decaying Oscillaria 
* Zur Kenntniss des Pilobolus, Part III. 
f Miclielia, ii., 372; Fungi Italici, 86G. 
I Spic. Mycol., p. 11, fig. 5. 
§ Michelia, l.c. 
I Bull. Soc. Bot. France, 1871, vol. xviii., p. 298. 
If Morpliologie del* Pilze, p. 179. 
