22S 



COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF FUNGI 



after finishing the third group. Entonaema liquescens (Fig. 146) 

 in the primeval forests of Brazil, forms light-colored, soft gelatinous, 

 vesicular fructifications, suggesting Tremella, attaining a diameter 

 up to 40 cm. and a height above the substrate up to 15 cm. Under 

 this light-colored outer layer lies a deep black plectenchyma in which, 

 over the entire fructification, are embedded the perithecia. Because 

 of this dark color of the deeper tissues, which in another species, E. 

 mesentrica, extends to the outer layers, and because of the dark color 

 of the ascospores, the author of this genus assigned them to the Xylaria- 

 ceae under the Sphaeriales. There, however, its position is entirely 

 isolated while it easily fits in the Hypocreales. The dark color of the 



Fig. 146. — Entonaema liquescens. Habit of perithecial stroma ( X \i>; after Mollcr, 1901.) 



tissue does not necessarily argue against its classification in the Hypo- 

 creales, as many unquestioned representatives of Hypocraea and Hypo- 

 crella show an equally dark color of the rind or the deeper plectenchyma 

 of the perithecial walls. The dark color of the ascospores is common to 

 Entonaema and Melanospora. 



The third stage is represented by Xylocraea, in which the perithecial 

 stromata develop elaborate fructifications. X. piriformis, on wood 

 in Brazil, forms fructifications like those shown for Mycomalus in Fig. 

 159, except that it is pyriform instead of maliform. Furthermore, 

 their perithecia are not formed over the whole surface but only in a 

 limited region at its thicker end, corresponding to the blossom end of the 

 pear. 



