The development of the thickened wall of polarilocular spores has been studied by Hue[685], who contends however that there is no true septation in the colourless spores so long as the central canal remains open. According to his observations the wall of the young spore is formed of a thin tegument, everywhere equal in thickness, and consisting of concentric layers. This tegument becomes continually thicker at the equator of the spore by the addition of new layers from the interior, and the protoplasmic contents are compressed into a gradually diminishing space. In the end the wall almost touches at the centre, and the spore consists of two polar cell-cavities with a narrow open passage between. A median line pierced by the canal is frequently seen. In a few species there is a second constriction cleavage and the spore becomes quadrilocular.
Hue insists that this spore should be regarded as only one-celled; for though the walls may touch at the centre, he says they never coalesce. He has unfortunately given no cytological observations as to whether the spore is uni- or binucleate.
In Xanthoria parietina, one of the species with characteristic polaribilocular spores, germination, it would seem, takes place mostly at one end only of the spore, though a germinating tube issues at both ends frequently enough to suggest that the spore is binucleate and two-celled. The absence of germination from one or other of the cells only may probably be due to the drain on their small resources. Hue has cited the rarity of such instances of double germination in support of his view of the one-celled nature of the spore. He instances that out of fifteen spores, Tulasne[686] has figured only three that have germinated at each end; Bornet[687] figures one in seven with the double germination and Bonnier[688] one in sixteen spores.
Further evidence is wanted as to the nuclear history of these hyaline spores. In the case of the brown spores, which show the same thickening of the wall and restricted cell-cavity, though with a distinct median septum, nuclear division was observed by René Maire[689] before septation in one such species, Anaptychia ciliaris.
II. SECONDARY SPORES
A. Reproduction by Oidia
In certain conditions of nutrition, fungal hyphae break up into separate cells, each of which functions as a reproductive conidium or oidium, which on germination forms new hyphae. Neubner[690] has demonstrated a similar process in the hyphae of the Caliciaceae and compares it with the oidial formation described by Brefeld[691] in the Basidiomycetes.
The thallus of this family of lichens is granular or furfuraceous; it never goes beyond the Lepra stage of development[692]. In some species it is scanty, in others it is abundant and spreads over large areas of the trunks of old trees. It is only when growth is especially luxuriant that oidia are formed. Neubner was able to recognize the oidial condition by the more opaque appearance of the granules, and under the microscope he observed the hyphae surrounding the gonidia gradually fall away and break up into minute cylindrical cells somewhat like spermatia in size and form. There was no question of abnormal or unhealthy conditions, as the oidia were formed in a freely fruiting thallus.