Order HYPOCREALES 
By FRED JAY SEAVER 
Perithecia globose, ovoid, conic, cylindric, fusoid, or flask-shaped, free on 
the substratum (occasionally subepidermal) or united by a common matrix, 
varying from a cottony subiculum to a distinct fleshy stroma, bright-colored, 
white, yellow, red, brown, violet, but never entirely black except in extreme 
age, opening by an ostiolum ; perithecial wall membranaceous or submembra- 
naceous, never carbonaceous. Stromata, when present, bright-colored and soft, 
fleshy or cottony, and varying in size from 1-2 mm. to several cm. in diameter, 
patellate, effuse, subglobose, or stalked, with the perithecia entirely super- 
ficial or partially to entirely immersed. Asci cylindric, clavate, or subovoid, 
mostly 4-8-spored, but often becoming 16-spored by the separation of each 
original spore into 2 globose or subglobose cells. Spores simple or compound, 
hyaline or colored, globose to filiform. Paraphyses usually present, but often 
indistinct. 
Conidiophores and conidia very variable. 
Stromata wanting, or, when present, with the perithecia entirely super- 
ficial, usually in cespitose clusters. Fam. 1. NECTRIACEAE. 
Stromata or stromatic base always present and forming a conspicuous 
matrix in which the perithecia are partially to entirely immersed, 
rately subsuperficial, especially in aged specimens. Fam. 2. HYPOCREACEAE, 
VOLUME 3, Part 1, 1910] 1 
