FUNGUS-FLORA. 



ASCOMYCETES. 



The very large number of species of fungi included in the 

 group known as the Ascomycetes, are characterised by having 

 their spores produced in asci or mother-cells. In the great 

 majority of species the asci are numerous, closely packed side 

 by side, and form the disc or hymenium, seated on and protected 

 by a structure called the ascophore, which is either parenchy- 

 matous, that is, composed of a mass of more or less polygonal 

 cells united to form a tissue, or consists of densely inter- 

 woven, septate hyphae. Iu the Discomycetes, the ascophore 

 has usually been described in British mycological works as 

 the cup, a vessel to which, in many species, it bears a resem- 

 blance; in other species, however, this term does not apply; 

 whereas in the Hysteriaceae, the ascophore is never cup- 

 shaped ; therefore the term ascophore is invariably used in 

 the present work, as being universally correct, in the sense 

 of being the structure containing the asci. 



In a few of the simplest genera, as Ascomyces and Ascodesmis, 

 the asci either spring from the hyphae at intervals, or if clus- 

 tered together are not enclosed in a protective covering. 

 That portion of the ascophore situated immediately below 

 the collection of asci forming the hymenium, is called the 

 liypothecium, and the lateral portion of the ascophore up to the 

 margin is the excipulum. In the Discomycetes, as already 

 stated, the excipulum usually forms a more or less cup- 

 shaped structure, whereas in the Hysteriaceae the excipulum 

 is always laterally compressed, the lips, or the two compressed 

 sides of the margin of the excipulum, being usually close 



VOL. IV. B 



