PHYCOMYCETOUS AFFINITIES 303 



curl fungi), and Ascocorticiaceae. These forms correspond with 

 the Euascomycetes in that the ascus contains usually a small 

 and definite number of spores, but they differ from them in 

 that a definite ascocarp is lacking. The asci are scattered 

 without order over a mould-like mycelium or exist as wholly 

 isolated cells. 



The Hemiascomycetes in Schroter's classification embrace a 

 relatively small number of species, regarded by him as the 

 most primitive of the known Ascomycetes. In the group, as 

 characterized by him, a fruit body is lacking and the ascus 

 contains a large and indefinite number of spores. He recognized 

 for these forms three families, Ascoideaceae, Protomycetaceae, 

 and Monascaceae. An additional family, Thelebolaceae, had 

 meanwhile been erected by Brefeld (1891). These families in 

 fact do not constitute natural groups, and subsequent investiga- 

 tion has shown that the genera included in them represent for 

 the most part miscellaneous collections of unrelated, doubtful, 

 or misunderstood fungi. 



The family Thelebolaceae was founded by Brefeld (1891) 

 on the single genus Theleobolus Tode (1790: 41), and was incor- 

 porated by him and by Lindau (1894; 1905) in the Hemiasco- 

 mycetes. The genus name has been spelled by other authors 

 Theleholus and Telebolus. No other genus has been added to 

 the family, and it is now recognized as closely related to Rhj- 

 parohhis of the Ascobolaceae, a family of the Discomycetes. It 

 is so treated by Saccardo (1928) and Rehm (1896). Two 

 species, Thel. stercoreus Tode and Thel zukalii Heimerl. have 

 been studied cytologically by Ramlow (1906; 1914). Although 

 the mature ascus is multinucleate and multispored it is enclosed 

 in a definite fruit body and arises from a binucleate cell of a 

 coiled archicarp such as occur in other genera of the Ascobolaceae. 

 One to several asci are formed in the fruit body. The genus 

 contains several species in addition to the two studied by Ramlow. 

 The family Monascaceae as presented by Schroter includes 

 three genera, Monascus van Tieghem, Ilelicosporangium H. 

 Karsten, and Papulaspora Preuss. Through the subsequent 

 incorporation of all of these in other groups the family has auto- 

 matically disappeared. In Monascus a definite ascocarp is 

 formed resembhng that of the Aspergillaceae, and the genus is 

 clearly a member of that group. The early deliquescence of 

 the ascus walls, and the consequent freeing of many spores into 



