Mature Asci Research Articles

Taxonomic import is attached to the presence of paraphyses between the asci in the perithecium or other ascigerous structure. For this reason, as well as on purely morphological grounds, the structure to be here described is of interest. The collection was made March 3I, I9I3, at Jayuda, Porto Rico, on the common Maya (Bromelia pinguin). Large leaves or portions of leaves were dead and rather thickly set with intensely black bodies, which on microscopic examination were readily revealed as perithecia, bearing abundant asci. Ordinary examination of material boiled in water or in potash solution, then teased apart and crushed, showed no strikingly unusual features about the asci, except that it was difficult to decide whether or not paraphyses were really present. Material was softened in lactophenol for two days, washed, and then imbedded in paraffin through xylol, and sectioned. From the sections it is clearly apparent that the black, thick, perithecial wall is sharply limited on its inner side, and that the central area, which in most perithecia is merely a cavity or a cavity partially filled with asci and paraphyses, is in this case occupied by a pseudoparenchyma. The perithecial wall cells are dark and thick-walled (figs. 2-3). The interascicular pseudoparenchyma is composed of thin-walled, hyaline cells, small and of quite uniform size. In relatively old perithecia with mature asci the spaces between and above the asci are completely filled with the pseudoparenchyma. In still older perithecia the interascicular pseudoparenchyma is seen to break down, beginning at the ostiole. An example of this is shown in fig. i. As the ostiolar tissue disorganizes a mycelium penetrates down through it; whether this mycelium belongs to this fungus or to another is not known