spores (teleutospores)
are capable of germination, and many of them will be found to have
germinated on the surface of the _Podisoma_ whence they originated.
The germ filament which they produce springs habitually from the side,
at a short distance from the hilum, which indicates the point of
attachment to the original spicule. These filaments will attain to
from fifteen to twenty times the diameter of the spore in length
before branching, and are in themselves exceedingly delicate. The
tubes which issue from the primary spores (protospores, Tul.) are not
always simple, but sometimes forked; and the cells which are
ultimately formed at their extremities, though producing filiform
processes, do not always generate secondary spores (teleutospores) at
their apices. This mode of germination, it will be seen, resembles
greatly that which takes place in _Puccinia_.

[Illustration: FIG. 88.--Germinating pseudospores of _Podisoma Juniperi_.
(Tulasne)]

The germination of the Ustilagines was in part examined by Tulasne,
but since has received accessions through the labours of Dr. A.
Fischer von Waldheim.[I] Nothing, however, of any importance is added
to our knowledge of the germination of _Tilletia_, which was made
known as early as 1847.[J] After some days a little obtuse tube is
protruded through the epispore, bearing at its apex long fusiform
bodies, which are the sporules of the first generation. These
conjugate by means of short transverse tubes, after the manner of the
threads of _Zygnema_. Afterwards long elliptical sporules of the
second generation are produced on short pedicels by the conjugated
fusiform bodies of the first generation. (Fig. 89, _ss._) Ultimately
these sporules of the second generation germinate, and generate, on
short spicules, similar sporules of a third generation. (Fig. 89,
_st._)

[Illustration: FIG. 89.--Germinating pseudospore (_g_) of _Tilletia
caries_ with secondary spores in conjugation. (Tul.)]

In _Ustilago (flosculorum)_ germination takes place readily in warm
weather. The germ tube is rather smaller at its base than further on.
In from fifteen to eighteen hours the contents become coarsely
granular; at the same time little projections appear on the tube which
are narrowed at the base, into which some of the protoplasm passes.
These ultimately mature into sporules. At the same time a terminal
sporule generally appears on the threads. Secondary sporules
frequently grow from the prima