40S KEVIEWS. 



escape by rupture of the walls, which he considers to be more fragile 

 in these genera than in other Hysterineae. Mons. Duby contends 

 that this classification is founded upon a double error. He remarks 

 that in Lophium the walls are not more fragile than in many of the 

 Hysteria ; upon this point we think he is quite correct, and that the 

 same remark might be extended to Actidium. He adds that in 

 Ostropa the walls are more persistent than in most plants of the 

 tribe. 



The question as to the escape of the spores is one which can only 

 be determined by a careful examination of specimens in a Hying 

 state. Mons. Duby alleges that the lips of the perithecia in the 

 genera in question, although closed when dry, open when the plant 

 becomes moist, and that the spores escape through the fissure. This 

 would certainly be more in accordance with what might be expected 

 from our knowledge of the process in closely allied species : at the 

 same time, the great authority of Fries, especially in observations 

 upon living Fungi, would lead one to suspend judgment in the 

 matter, with a suspicion, however, that Mons. Duby will prove to be 

 in the right. 



Mycologists in general will probably concur with Mons. Duby in 

 keeping the Hysterineae apart from the Pezizas, for which he gives, 

 as it seems to us, sound and sufficient reasons. The absence of 

 gonidia affords a strong, if not a conclusive argument in favour of 

 separating them from the Lichens ; a separation which could not, we 

 think, be justified upon the other grounds brought forward by the 

 author, viz. the absence of a thallus, the structure of the paraphyses 

 and of the hymenium, and the insensibility of the latter to the 

 action of iodine. With regard to the last point especially, so many 

 fungi are now known* in which the test of iodine discloses the ex- 

 istence of starch, that the presence of this substance can no longer 

 be looked upon as a mark of distinction between Lichens and Fungi. 



Mons. Duby divides the Hysterineae into two sections, Lophieas 

 and Hysterieae, the former having the perithecia more or less erect, 

 the latter having the perithecia horizontal. Each of these sections 

 is divided into two sub- sections, according to a difference in the 

 nature of the asci. We are not aware that this difference has been 

 previously noticed, and we therefore translate the author's account 

 of it. He says — 



" The asci of the Hysterinese are constructed upon two totally different systems. 

 Those of the one system are true sacs, enclosing 8 spores (exceptionally 4 or 6 only) 

 of different forms, varying from ovoid-globular to cylindrico-linear. Those of the 

 other system, which at first resemble the former, excepting that they are cylindrical 

 and much more elongated, are in reality composed of 8 hyaline filiform spores, con- 

 taining a number of little globules or sporules. When ripe, the spores separate at 



* See Ann. d. Sc. nat. Ser. IV., Vol. 3, p. 148. Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of London, 1858, p. 119. Pringsheim's Jahrbucher fur wiss. Bot. Vol. ii. 

 p. 275, et seq. 



