110 M. C. Montagne^s Organographic and Physiologic 



(Ic. Fung. iii. p. 18.). Hence the little certainty as to their situa- 

 tion in his different works. The genus Sclerotinm, whose fruit yet 

 remains to be discovered, is placed by Corda near Cenococcum, which 

 enters into the section with which we are occupied. Amongst the 

 Sclerotia is the Ergot* (SpernKsdia, Fr., Sphacelia, Lev.), too noto- 

 rious for its deleterious properties, but used to hasten parturition in 

 cases of inactivity of the matrix. 



The Trichodermacece have a peridium, originally formed of more 

 or less closely felted filaments, and it is in this important character 

 especially that the fungi of this order differ from Myxogastres. This 

 is not however the only character which distinguishes them from 

 Myxogastres or Ly coper dinece; there is this also, viz. the total disap- 

 pearance of filaments as the sporidia ripen. These filaments exist 

 in an early stage of growth, as I have convinced myself in Tricho- 

 derma viride and Onygena equina. As this tribe is composed of 

 exotic or rare genera, it is difficult to give the history of its mor- 

 phosis, on which we have no sufficient information f. 



The peridium, which is mitriform or spherical, is most frequently 

 sessile {e. g. Ostracoderma)X. It is stipitate in Spadonia and Pilacre, 

 and the stem is either cellular, or smooth and fibrous. It is formed, 

 even from the first, of more or less close byssoid filaments ; but in 

 almost all the species it opens by abrasion of the summit. In Os- 

 tracoderma it is smooth, and as it were crustaceous. The sporidia 

 spring evidently, as in the following order, from the threads of which 

 the whole fungus at first consists ; and this is I think proved by the 

 fact, that in Trichoderma viride they bear a very short filament in 

 the guise of a pedicel. Their form is ovoid or spherical, and their 

 colour various. 



The Lycoperdons or Trichogastres form one of the most remark- 

 able orders in this first section. They are distinguished from those 

 which have been mentioned by being fleshy in their early stage of 

 growth. Here the organization becomes more complicated. We 

 for the first time meet with a membrane formed of threads which 

 produce at their tips naked sporidia. Mr. Berkeley § has shown 

 that in Lycoperdon calatum, gemmatum, and in Bovista, observed at 

 an early stage of growth, the interior flesh (Gleba, Fr.) is perforated 

 in every direction by little elongated labyrinthiform cavities, com- 



* The ergot is rather a disease produced by a fungus than a fungus itself, 

 and is in fact the effect of a Fusisporium. See Linn. Trans., vol. xviii. p. 

 475, and p. 483.— M. J. B. 



f There would I think be little inconvenience in uniting it to the follow- 

 ing tribe, since, as in the genus Cenococcum, the sporidia of many species 

 of Mitremyces are not, at least at the time of maturity, mixed with fila- 

 ments. 



X Institale is omitted, as the genus is spurious, being made up of the early 

 state of Coprinus radians, and Sphceria fragiformis with an Isaria growing 

 from its base. — M. J. B. 



§ Ann. of Nat. Hist. v. i. p. 81, translated by the author, Ann. des Sc. 

 Nat. 2 serie, xii. p. 160. t. 2. [See also an admirable article by Messrs. 

 Tulasne in Ann. Sc. Nat. Jan. 1842, in which Scleroderma also is proved 

 to be hymenomycetous.] — M. J. B. 



