118 M. L. R. Tulasne on the Reproductive Organs 



case in Nemaspora, Micropera, Polystigma, Ascochyta, and many 

 other genera comprehended in the Cytisporacece or Phyllostictece. 

 Thus, to cite only a few examples, Nemaspora Ribis belongs to 

 Sphceria Ehrenbergi, N., Poly stigma rubrum to Poly stigma ful- 

 vum, a thecigerous Fungus, Micropera Drupacearum to Sphceria 

 Leveillei, &c. 



Any one attentively following this constant succession of the 

 same fungous productions upon the same mycelium will naturally 

 suppose that they are determined by a law, and that a necessary 

 relation exists between these vegetable forms; but it will be 

 found difficult to believe that they are so many different creations, 

 parasitical upon one another, and it will be more readily sup- 

 posed that they are connected by some other bond. A proof that 

 this bond is that which exists between the members of the same 

 body or the individuals of a single species, is furnished by the 

 species of Tympanis and Cenangium, which are kinds of cespitose 

 or coalescent Pezizas. The stroma of these Fungi, before giving 

 birth to the thecigerous cupules or disks, produces abundantly 

 upon its surface, borne upon basidia of various forms, not only 

 naked spores, but also extremely slender cylindrical corpuscles, 

 exactly like those emitted from the spermogoni of the Lichens, 

 the Septorice, many of the Cytisporm, and other analogous Fungi. 

 The same corpuscles are observed also upon the edge of the 

 cupule of various species of Cenangium. 



In Rhytisma, a thecasporous genus, of the order Discomycetes, 

 each species, so to speak, possesses a kind of precursor in a Me- 

 lasmia, or Fungus with acrogenous spores, which plays towards 

 it the same part as the Cytisporce and their analogues do in re- 

 lation to the Sphcerice. According to what Mr. Berkeley says, 

 Aster oma Ulmi should be a sort of Melasmia to Dothidea Ulmi. 

 Several species of Hyslerium and Phacidium are also joined to 

 Leptoslroma, which evidently belongs to them. 



With reference to some genera of the Coniomycetes, it has long 

 been suspected that the Melanconia and their allies are only 

 Sphcerice in a certain state of alteration (Sphcerice corruptee). 

 M. Fries, following Link, has raised doubts as to their autonomy, 

 but no one has yet shown, by a sufficient examination of their 

 mode of increase, what they really are, that is to say (like Stego- 

 nosporium, Didymosporium, Stilbospora and analogous genera), 

 the gonidia of various Sphcerice (e. g. Sphceria stilbostoma, fava- 

 cea, &c). The majority of the Tubercularice also represent the 

 stroma of certain Sphcerice (v. g. S. cinnabarina, S. coccinea, &c), 

 and their spores must also be received as the gonidia of the latter. 

 A very exact comparison can be made between the spores of the 

 Tubercularice and the dissociated elements of the articulated fila- 

 ments, which by their union constitute the pulvinules called by 



