_Lecanora subfusca_ has a rather small simple spore; it emitted
germinating tubes from each end, and a septum across the middle of the
spore appeared after germination had taken place. Another experiment
was with a much larger muriform spore measuring 80 µ in length and 20 µ
in thickness. On germination about 20 tubes were formed, some of them
rising into the air at once, the others encircling the spore, so that the
thallus took form immediately; growth in this case also was centrifugal.
In three months a diameter of 6 mm. was reached with a thickness of 1 to
2 mm. and showing a differentiation into medulla and cortex. The hyphae
did not increase in width, but frequently globose or ovate swellings
arose in or at the ends, a character which recurs in the natural growth
of hyphae both of lichens and of Ascomycetes. These swellings depend on
the nutrition.
_Pertusaria communis_ possesses a very large simple spore, but it is
multinucleate and germinates with about 100 tubes which reach their
ultimate width of 3 to 4 µ before they emerge from the exospore. The
hyphae encircle the spore, and an opaque thalline growth is quickly
formed from which rise terminal hyphal branches. In ten weeks the
differentiation into medulla and cortex was reached, and in five months
the hyphal thallus measured 4 mm. in diameter and 1 to 2 mm. in thickness.
Möller instituted a comparison between the thalli he obtained from the
spores and those from the spermatia of another crustaceous lichen,
_Buellia punctiformis_ (_B. myriocarpa_). After germination had taken
place the hyphae from the spermatia grew at first more quickly than those
from the ascospores, but as soon as thallus formation began the latter
caught up and, in eight weeks, both thalli were of equal size.
Another comparative culture with the spermatia and ascospores of
_Opegrapha subsiderella_ gave similar results: the spores of that species
are elongate-fusiform and 6-to 8-septate; germination took place from
the end cells in two to three days after sowing. The germinating hyphae
corresponded exactly with those from the spermatia and growth was equally
slow in both. The middle cells of the spores may also produce germinating
tubes, but never more than about five were observed from any one spore.
A browning of the cortical layer was especially apparent in the hyphal
culture from another lichen, _Graphis scripta_: a clear brown colour
gradually changing to black appeared about the same period in all the
cultures.
The hyphae from the spores of _Arthonia_ developed quickest of all:
the hyphae were very slender, but in three to four months the growth
had reached a diameter of 8 mm. In this plant there was the usual
outgrowth of delicate hyphae from the surface; no definite cortical layer
appeared, but only a very narrow line of more closely interwoven somewhat
darker hyphae. Frequently, from the surface of the original thallus,
excrescences arose which were the beginnings of further thalli.
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