144 



TUBERALES 



A. Asci typically 4-8-spored 



1. Parasitic 



a. Hymenium deforming the host; asci arising 



from separate hyphae, typically 8-spored; 

 spores globoid 



b. Hymenium not deforming the host, folicole; 



asci arising from a hyphal layer, 4-spored; 

 spores cylindric 



2. Saprophytic; asci 8-sporcd, arising from a hy- 



phal layer; spores elliptic 



B. Asci many-spored 



1. Asci more or less globose 



2. Asci clavate to cylindric 



Exascus 8:816; 37 



Ascosorus 



Ascocorticium 10:71; 37 



Taphridium 18:203 

 Taphrina 8:812; 37 



Order 14. TUBERALES 



Ascoma typically more or less globose, with a differentiated peridium that 

 crumbles or breaks away irregularly, occasionally stalked, fleshy, waxy, leathery, 

 carbonous or corneous; ascogenous tissue or gleba with hollows, locules or veins, 

 or solid and then becoming powdery; asci mostly saccate to oblong, irregularly 

 disposed, 1-many-spored; spores usually hyaline, simple, often sculptured, some- 

 times mixed with capillitium when powdery; rarely p:<rasitic, usually saprophytic 

 and subterranean. ' 



This is probably not a natural order, though the several families appear to be 

 more nearly related to each other than to the Gymnascales, where Fischer placed 

 the first two (Nat. Pflanzenfl. 1:1:309, 1897). The group is regarded as diphyletic, 

 such simple forms as Genea in the Tuberaceae being derived from cup-fungi like 

 Sphaerosoma, while the Onygenaceae seem to be the connecting link between the 

 sclerotioid Gymnascaceae and the Elaphomycetaceae. 



Key to Families 



A. Ascoma not hypogean, opening more or less 



regularly; gleba typically with capillitium 



B. Ascoma hypogean, not opening spontaneously 



1. Gleba powdery, usually with capillitium 



2. Gleba firm, loculate, lacunose or veined, with- 



out capillitium 



Onygenaceae p. 144 

 Elaphomycetaceae p. 145 

 Tuberaceae p. 145 



Family 60. ONYGENACEAE 



8:861, 10:80, 11:440, 16:807, 22:589, 24:1145; Fischer 309, 310 



Ascoma globoid or ovoid, sessile to stipitate, membranous to waxy, with a dis- 

 tinct peridium of one or more layers; gleba waxy or corneous, then becoming 

 powdery, usually with a capillitium; asci more or less saccate, mostly 8-spored and 

 evanescent; spores simple, hyaline or subhyaline. 



A. Ascoma stipitate as a rule; capillitium not verti- 

 cal 



1. Stalk simple; ascoma glabrous; gleba uniform; 



epizoic 



2. Stalk branched above; ascoma floccose at first; 



gleba plurilocular; humicole 



Onygena 8:861, F 309; 6 

 Dendrosphaera 22:589 



