314 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Barker (1903) describes sexual fusion in Monascus. The sex 
organs are small branches arising from the same hyphae and lie 
side by side. The oogonium consists of three cells; the stalk cell^ 
central cell, and trichogyne. The male nuclei pass into the tricho- 
gyne by a pore and fuse in pairs with the female nuclei. The 
ascogenous hyphae arise from the central cell by budding but later 
grow back into it due to the pressure of the perithecial hyphae. 
The asci therefore appear to originate within the central celL 
Barker tries to show that relationship exists between the Ascomy- 
cetes and the Oomycetes. He believes that the nuclei left in the 
periplasm of the oogonium of Albugo Candida are comparable to 
those which degenerate in the central cell of Monascus. 
Guilliermond (1903-04) points out that nuclear fusion accom¬ 
panies cell fusion in some of the yeasts. This fusion he considers 
as sexual. He finds that conjugation of conidia and nuclear fusion 
precede spore formation in the Schizosaccharomycetes and Zygo- 
sacchromycetes. Two cells are connected by a tube and in the tube 
nuclear fusion occurs. This is followed by one division and the 
daughter nuclei migrate, one going to each of the two original cells. 
Four spores are formed after the nucleus has made two successive 
divisions. 
Maire (1903-04) and Dangeard (1903) hold that all Ascomy- 
cetes have four chromosomes. Guilliermond finds that the chromo¬ 
some number in the nuclei of several Ascomycetes, Peziza vesiculo- 
sis and Peziza catinus, is not the same; therefore, the chromosome 
number varies with the species and the statements of Maire amd 
Dangeard are invalid. Harper (1896, 1905) finds that the chromo¬ 
some number varies with the species. He considers that there is 
a true alternation of generations in the Ascomycetes, the division 
in the ascus being purely vegetative, and states that it is impos¬ 
sible to determine when the two reductions in chromosome occur. 
It may be in the first and second division or in the second and third. 
The chromosomes are quadrivalent as they pass to the poles in the 
first division and bivalent in the second. The chromosome number 
remains constant during the three divisions, according to Harper 
(1905). The three divisions must, therefore, be necessary as two 
reductions must occur, and possibly arose in connection with in¬ 
hibited cell and nuclear division due to increase in the nutritive 
material of the ascus. Fraser and Welsford (1908) hold that the 
first division of the primary ascus nucleus is the “meiotic” or re¬ 
ducing division, the synapsis occurring after the first contraction. 
