FAULL: DEVELOPMENT OF ASCUS. 
103 
fers in so many important respects from what has been described for 
the asci, it is difficult to see how the asci could possibly have been 
derived from them. 
Nor has a study of Brefeld’s so called intermediate forms revealed 
a connecting link between the Zygomycetes and the Ascomycetes. 
A number of the Hemiasci have been examined from this point of 
view by Popta, Holtermann, and Juel, and though some points have 
not been cleared up, yet the conclusion is fairly safe that their 
sporangia do not occupy the intermediate position that has been 
claimed for them. 
Holtermann (’98) has described the method of spore formation 
in a Hemiascous form called by him Oscarbrefeldia pellucida. He 
says of this that in the young ascus the granular protoplasm lines 
the wall, while the center is occupied by hyaline cell sap. Soon a 
plate of protoplasm forms across the ascus dividing the central 
cavity into two parts. In a similar manner the cavity is finally 
divided by a succession of protoplasmic plates into as many as 
thirty-two hollow spaces, the interior of the future spores. These 
small cavities then round themselves up, a cuticularized layer is 
formed about them, and the spores are completed. There is a 
residue of epiplasm. He confesses that “ Ich habe mich liier auf 
eine einzige Art [the culture method] beschrankt”; but gratuitously 
adds “ aber nach den vorlaufigen Untersuchungen hege ich keinen 
Zweifel, dass die Bildung and Differenzierung der Sporen bei den 
anderen Ascomyceten nicht wesentlich abweicht von der des oben 
beschriebenen Falles.” The unfortunate part of his investigations 
was his failure to recognize the existence of nuclei in fungi. 
“ Denn es wiirde sich dann sofort herausgestellt haben, dass das, 
was bis jetzt fur Zellkern bei den Pilzen gehalten wurde, tlieils 
Vacuolen, tlieils Protoplasmaansammlungen, tlieils auch Protoplas- 
makornchen sind.” 
Observations on three of the Hemiasci, Ascoidea rubescens , Pro- 
tomyces macrosporus, and P. bellidis have been recorded by Popta 
(’99). In Ascoidea rubescens the spores are formed by the proto¬ 
plasm becoming more densely aggregated about the nuclei, followed 
by a development in an undiscovered manner of limiting walls. 
There is an epiplasm. In each of the other forms the protoplasm 
arranges itself in a parietal layer leaving a vacuole in the center. 
The division planes in P. bellidis are radially arranged, suggestive 
