^ 1200 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
Stained preparations of the germinating pins and minns 
spores were made as follows: the spores were germinated either 
in weak sugar solution or in agar. Bouillon is to be avoided be¬ 
cause of precipitation in the subsequent treatment. The spores, 
germinated in sugar solution, were flooded onto a slide, which 
had been previously covered with fish-glue fixative, and allowed 
to stand. When almost dry, the preparation was covered with 
the fixing solution, either Flemming’s or chrom-acetic. The 
latter is the more satisfactory because subsequent bleaching is 
not necessary. After an exposure for ten minutes, the fix¬ 
ing agent was drawn off by means of filter paper and the slide 
was washed carefully in water. Many of the spores washed 
off but enough remained to give very satisfactory preparations. 
It was found best to use alcoholic stains if possible because the 
less the preparations are washed in water the better they are 
in the end. 
The spores germinated in agar were also fixed and carried 
through to paraffin in the usual ways. These preparations are 
not as good because the agar is granular and takes the stain 
and because in sectioning the germ tubes are cut at various 
angles. 
The pure strains of the sporangial cultures were grown on 
rye bread in large flat dishes. The sporangia were collected 
at various stages and fixed as previously described. The studies 
of the sporangia in fixed material were restricted to the large 
sporangia which are produced in older cultures. 
LIFE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 
Under natural conditions Phycomyces nitens is found grow¬ 
ing most commonly in fresh manure. In the majority of texts 
and general descriptions it is described as preferring an oily 
substratum, but there seems to be little evidence to support 
this statement. It is possible to obtain a luxuriant growth on 
any of the ordinary media used in the laboratory for such pur¬ 
poses, e. g., bread, rice, sugar, and vegetable agars. It requires 
considerable moisture and medium temperatures (18° to 28 °C.) 
to produce the best vegetative growth. 
The spores, are small elliptical bodies with resistant walls. 
They possess from four to twelve nuclei each, typically eight. 
