comb. form of ASCUS, used in many scientific terms of Cryptogamic Botany, as: Ascogonium [cf. archegonium], the spirally coiled organ from which the asci (see ASCUS) are produced. Ascomycetal, Ascomycetous a., of or belonging to the Ascomycetes, or fungi, such as the yeast-plant and truffles, in which spores are formed asexually in the interior of asci. Ascophorous, a. [Gr. -φορος bearing], producing asci. Ascospore, a spore developed in an ascus.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 257. The female organ, called by De Bary the Ascogonium. Ibid., 258. The Asci … owe their origin to the fertilised ascogonium.
1884. Athenæum, 26 Jan., 124/1. Structurally it [Sphæria pocula] is hymenomycetal and not ascomycetal.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., II. i. 304. Peziza belongs to the Ascomycetous fungi.
1857. Berkeley, Cryptog. Bot., § 62. There is not a single instance amongst Algæ, of ascophorous fruit.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 240. The Ascospores … arise by free cell-formation in the protoplasm of the … Ascus.
