264 COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF FUNGI 



gium (Fig. 137, B). Some of them, as N. cupularis on the dead branches 

 of frondose species, generally do not have true stromata, but only a 

 subiculum. 



Coryneliaceae. — The perithecial turf (Fitzpatrick, 1920) is chiefly 

 hypodermal and erumpent. In the simplest genera, as Caliciopsis, the 

 perithecia seem like those of the other Sphaeriales, and rest upon stipitate 

 outgrowths of the stroma; some species of Caliciopsis are saprophytic on 

 the dead bark of frondose trees, others are parasitic on conifers where they 

 form pycnia and perithecia successively in the same stroma. In Psorica, 

 on ferns, the perithecia are still stipitate, but become allantoid. In 

 Corynelia and Tripospora, chiefly on Podocarpus leaves, the perithecia are 

 sessile, flask shaped, allantoid, elongated to several times their original 

 length. All these genera have no true ostiole, but tear open at the tip in 

 a predetermined manner. In the lower forms, the hyphal elements 

 easily pull apart, leaving a ciliate opening. In the higher forms, deep 

 dehiscence lines are already formed so that a perithecium opens by a 

 sharply defined slit; in one species only one slit is formed, in others often 

 several radial slits, so that three or more lobes result. Often the slit is 

 so large that the whole interior of the perithecium is laid open. In some 

 species of Corynelia, the lobes are thrown back like discs so that there 

 arises on the top of the allantoid perithecium a flat plate-like bowl. 



Through this lack of a true ostiole and presence of a highly specialized 

 manner of opening, the Coryneliaceae are entirely out of the general 

 scheme of the Sphaeriales; until one knows more of their phylogeny, 

 however, it is impossible to associate them elsewhere. 



While these four first families are distinguished by perithecia superfi- 

 cial on substrate or stroma, the following families are characterized by 

 perithecia which are either partially (at the base) or wholly imbedded in 

 the substrate or stroma. 



Of the half-embedded forms, two families may be mentioned, the 

 Amphisphaeriaceae (with round ostioles) and the Lophiostomataceae 

 (with laterally compressed ostioles); the former are of interest by their 

 transition from asterinoid habit to epiphytism; the latter, as the connect- 

 ing link to the Hysteriales. As the Lophiostomataceae are only imper- 

 fectly known we will limit ourselves to the Amphisphaeriaceae. 



Amphisphaeriaceae. — These have, as in the Thielavia group of the 

 Aspergillaceae, the Meliola-Parodiopsis group of the Perisporiaceae and 

 the endophytic-ectoparasitic series of the Erysiphaceae, passed over to 

 ectoparasitism in damp, warm climates and finally to pure epiphytism. 

 Hence they have attained to the formation of characteristic vegetative 

 forms which, on account of their special habit, bear the name of sooty 

 moulds. They are especially closely connected in habit and morphology to 

 the Perisporiaceae and generally are grouped with the latter; but it seems 

 to me (although some of its representatives have no ostiole) that they are 



