296 CHAPTERS ON FUNGI. ^October, 



nearly five hundred years to vanquisli and incorporate the warlike 

 tribes who inhabited that narrow tracts but this being accom- 

 plishedj two hundred more suflBced them to complete the con- 

 quest of the world. J. S. M. 



CHAPTERS ON FUNGI. 



By Archibald Jerdon. 



CHAPTEE VI. 



The third great Order of the class Fungi is that of Coniomy- 

 CETEs, of which the general character is the great predominance 

 of the reproductive bodies, or spores, over the other parts of the 

 plant, so that in fact the whole plant, in many cases, consists 

 almost entirely of an aggregation of spores. 



The Order may be divided into two principal groups, the first 

 consisting of those Fungi which grow on dead (or dying) plants, 

 and the second^ of those which are parasitic on living plants. These 

 latter, though generally blighting, and at length destroying the 

 plants on which they grow, often impart to them, by their various 

 forms and gay colours, a beauty and interest which they would 

 not otherwise possess. The various diseases of plants, commonly 

 known as blight, rust, and mildew, are caused by Fungi belonging 

 to this Order. 



Suborder 1. Sph^uonemei. 



A numerous but obscure group, the general structure of which 

 is an imperfectly developed perithecium, and minute spores borne 

 on sporophores. Many of the so-called species are now supposed 

 to be imperfect states of Ephceria and other Fungi. 



I shall only notice the genus Septoria. 



Septoria. 



Spores fusiform, septate, originating beneath the cuticle, oozing 

 forth. 



Septoria Ulmi, Kunze. Elm-leaf Septoria. Spots brown; 

 heaps of spores small, scattered ; spores nearly straight, subquadri- 

 septate. — Grev. So. Crypt. Fl. t. 112. 



On elm-leaves in early autumn, common. 



