298 * CHAPTERS ON FUNGI. [October, 



celsj or stalks^ arising from their base. The manner in which the 

 spores are borne on the pedicels is various. Some are included 

 in little bladder-like vessels ; others are attached to slender threads 

 diverging from the summits of the pedicels; and others again 

 are produced on little branchlets, which spread out from the main 

 stem like the branches of a tree. 



The Fungi of this group are, in general, very minute and evan- 

 escent, and require very careful manipulation and a good micro- 

 scope for their elucidation. 



A very extensive group of Fungi is distinguished by having 

 the spores contained in seed-vessels^ or asci. These are little 

 transparent sacs, generally of a slender and elongated form, and 

 are sometimes fixed, or arranged in a definite hymenium, side 

 by side, as in the genera Peziza, Morchella, etc., or free, as in 

 Spheeria, etc., in which case they are usually dispersed in a gela- 

 tinous mass, or divergent from the walls of the perithecia. The 

 spores, or sporidia, as they are termed, which are contained in 

 these asci, are generally eight in number, and usually quite pel- 

 lucid, though they sometimes occur of a brown or yellow colour. 

 In many cases they are septate, and in many other cases they 

 contain little round bodies, still more minute than themselves, and 

 which are denominated sporidiola. 



The forms assumed by the Fungi of this group vary much. 

 Some are cup-shaped, as Peziza, bearing the hymenium on the 

 (generally concave) upper surface of the cup, which is either ses- 

 sile or stipitate ; others, as Spharia, are more or less of a rounded 

 form and hard substance, and produce their fruit in the interior 

 of perithecia, or little spherules, and immersed in a gelatinous, 

 semifluid mass ; others again, as Morchella, have a honeycombed 

 pileus, supported on a stem, or are club-shaped, as Spathulea. 

 Another form is presented in the horny perithecia of Hysterium, 

 and a somewhat anomalous form is typified by the Truffle, which, 

 with its allies, is only found underground. 



The large and extensive genus S^jhoeria contains a great variety 

 of outward forms, agreeing in a common internal structure. 

 Many species of this genus are compound, i. e. a number of peri- 

 thecia are united into a common mass by a receptacle, which is 

 termed the stroma. Other species are simple, i. e. each perithe- 

 cium stands alone : but these are generally gregarious. The ge- 

 neral colour is black; but brown, red, and even yellow species 



