576 



FUNGI IMPERFECTi: THE IMPERFECT FUNGI 



their apical portions, or the vegetative mycelium breaking up into conidia. 

 The conidiophores may] be simple or branched, short or long, similar to 

 the ?,vegetative mycelium or very distinct from it, but are never enclosed 

 within a pycnidium nor packed laterally into a subepidermal or subcortical 

 acervulus. They are almost always external at time of conidium production. 

 Mycelia Sterilia: imperfect fungi which lack all conidial formation, and which 

 produce sclerotia, rhizomorphs, and various other forms of mycelium without 

 spores. 



The usual extremely artificial classification of the Fungi Imperfecti 

 separates many genera which perhaps more logically should be placed 



nearer each other. An example is the 

 series of fungi in which the conidia 

 ("endoconidia") are produced in the 

 interior of the conidiophore and pushed 

 out successively from an opening at the 

 apex. These genera are found in several 

 different "form families" and have 

 conidia that are colored or colorless; one- 

 celled to several-celled; pushed out in 

 chains or singly; surrounded by slime or 

 not, etc. In some of these genera other 

 imperfect spore-forms also occur while 

 in some the endoconidia are the only 

 ones known. Some are believed to be 

 imperfect forms of Ascomyceteae while 

 it is suspected that the perfect stage of 

 others may be Basidiomycetous. The 

 following genera include most of the 

 endosporous Fungi Imperfecti: Cado- 

 phora, Thielaviopsis, Hymenella, Chalara, 

 Sporoschisma, Sporendonema, Endoco- 

 nidium, Chalaropsis, and probably Caten- 

 ularia and Phialophora. (Fig. 190.) In the last two the conidiophore 

 approaches the type of phialide (or sterigma) found in Cephalosporium, 

 Gliocladium, and Penicillmm, in which the conidia appear to be almost 

 endogenous in origin. 



Order Sphaeropsidales. The 568^ genera (with over 2300 species in 

 North America alone) ascribed to this order are divided into four form 



families. 



Family Sphaeropsidaceae (Sphaerioidaceae of Some Authors). 

 Pycnidia resembling typical perithecia or forming pycnidial cavities in a 



Fig. 190. Moniliales. Endoge- 

 nous production of conidia (endo- 

 spores). (A) Cadophora obscura 

 Nannfeldt. (B) Thielaviopsis para- 

 doxa (de Seynes) von Hohnel (co- 

 nidial stage of Ophiosloma {Cera- 

 tostomella) paradoxum). (A, after 

 Melin and Nannfeldt, Svenska 

 Skogsvardsforeningens Tidskrift, 

 Hafte III-IV, pp. 397-616. B, cour- 

 tesy, Dade: Brit. Mycol. Soc. 

 Trans., 13:184-194.) 



1 The figures for this order are taken from H. B. Bender's pamphlet (1934) on 

 the Sphaeropsidales. 



