Observations on Hirneola Auricula judae Berk. 127 
Brefeld also describes as of regular occurence the formation of 
conidia on the germinating spores in water or in nutritive solutions 
(3, pp. 73-76). In my own observations conidia were sometimes 
obtained in water either directly from the spores (Fig. 4, b,c) or 
from the hyphae which were first produced (Fig. 4, d,e), they 
occured one day or two after the spores had commenced to germi¬ 
nate, i.e., on the fourth or fifth day of immersion. But they have 
never been seen in nutritive solutions either concentrated or dilute, 
and whenever conidia were suspected they proved to be, on close 
examination, hooks or clamps by means of which the hyphae are 
kept entangled together. I may add that the hooked conidia 
produced in water are somewhat different from those sketched by 
Brefeld (3, pi. IV) their curvature being less marked (Fig. 4, f.) 
Fig. 4. Basidiospores germinating in distilled water and giving rise to 
conidia seen in different stages of development : b—c, conidia produced directly 
from the spores ; d—e, conidia borne on hyphae ; /, mature conidia. x600. 
Thus Moller’s prophecy that “the inexactitude of Holtermann’s 
statements would be shown in course of time through the further 
researches of other workers ” (16) has not been entirely fulfilled as 
far as my observations are concerned, though I have been dealing 
with a European form of the Jew’s Ear fungus. 
It is far from me, however, to say that Moller’s results are 
inexact. It is better to take facts as they have been observed than 
to state that results different from our own are impossible or 
