e, the appearance which it presented at the moment of
fecundation.

The primitive membrane of the oospore, at first very thin, soon
acquires a more sensible thickness, and becomes surrounded by an
external layer (epospore), which is formed at the expense of the
protoplasm of the periphery. This disappears in proportion as the
epispore attains maturity, and finally there only remains a quantity
of granules, suspended in a transparent watery fluid. At the period of
maturity, the epispore is a slightly thickened, resistant membrane, of
a yellowish-brown colour, and finely punctate. The surface is almost
always provided with brownish warts, which are large and obtuse,
sometimes isolated, and sometimes confluent, forming irregular crests.
These warts are composed of cellulose, which reagents colour of a deep
blue, whilst the membrane which bears them preserves its primitive
colour. One of the warts, larger than the rest, and recognizable by
its cylindrical form, always forms a kind of thick sheath around the
fecundating tube. The ripe endospore is a thick, smooth, colourless
membrane, composed of cellulose containing a bed of finely granulated
protoplasm, which surrounds a great central vacuole. This oospore, or
resting spore, may remain dormant in this state within the tissues of
the foster plant for some months. Its ultimate development by
production of zoospores is similar to the production of zoospores from
conidia, which it is unnecessary to repeat here. The oospore becomes
an oosporangium, and from it at least a hundred germinating bodies are
at length expelled.

Amongst the principal observers of certain phenomena of copulation in
cells formed in the earliest stages of the _Discomycetes_ are
Professor de Bary,[J] Dr. Woronin,[K] and Messrs. Tulasne.[L] In the
_Ascobolus pulcherrimus_ of Crouan, Woronin ascertained that the cup
derives its origin from a short and flexible tube, thicker than the
other branches of the mycelium, and which is soon divided by
transverse septa into a series of cells, the successive increase of
which finally gives to the whole a torulose and unequal appearance.
The body thus formed he calls a "vermiform body." The same observer
also seems to have convinced himself that there exists always in
proximity to this body certain filaments, the short arched or
inflected branches of which, like so many antheridia, rest their
anterior extremities on the utriform cells. This contact seems to
communic