48 



Microscopic Moulds. 



By M. C. Cooke. 



(Bead March 25th, 1870.) 



It would be impossible, within the short space of time allotted for 

 the reading of a paper, to give a satisfactory outline of the num- 

 erous genera and species which are included in the term " Micro- 

 scopic Fungi." Since the establishment of the Club I have several 

 times been solicited by individual members to read such a paper, 

 and hitherto have hesitated in accepting a responsibility which I 

 saw no prospect of satisfying. At length a modification has been 

 resolved upon, and what I could not hope to do for the whole, I 

 am about to attempt for a part. Of the six families into which 

 Fungi are usually divided I have selected the Hyphomycetes ; but 

 before commencing with them it will be advisable to recount the 

 features which characterise these six groups or families. It will be 

 borne in mind that four of these families are sporiferous — that is, 

 the fruit consists .of naked spores — and that the other two fami- 

 lies are sporidiiferous, or the fruit consists of sporidia enclosed in 

 asci. Of the latter, one family consists of Moulds, which in habit 

 and appearance are often analogous to those we are about to con- 

 sider, but with a more complex fruit. The other family contains 

 the Spha?ria? and their allies, or the Pyrenomycetes as they are 

 sometimes termed, and the Pezizce and their allies, or the Discomy- 

 cetes. The majority of these are very minute, and may be truly 

 called Microscopic Fungi, but the 800 British species of ascigerous 

 fungi is far too large a group for such an occasion. 



Passing to the Sporiferous Fungi, we have the large forms, of 

 which the mushroom may be taken as a type ; the Hymenomycetes 

 in which the hymenium, or surface which bears the spores, is exposed, 

 sometimes spread over plates or gills, sometimes lining tubes, 

 sometimes covering teeth or spines, but mostly bearing the naked 

 spores in groups of four at the apex of sporophores, or special 

 supports, on which they are seated upon little spicules. We have 



