ASCOSPHOREAE 213 
C. Spore fruits much reduced, containing teliospores. 
Class TELIOSPOREAE. 
D. Asci, basidia or teliospores unknown (artificial group). 
Funai IMPERFECTI. 
Crass 14. ASCOSPOREAE. Tue Ascus Funct. 
333. This large class includes chlorophyll-less plants 
which differ much in size and appearance, but which agree 
in producing their fruit-spores (carpo- 
spores) in sacs (asci), and because they | 
are in sacs they are called sac-spores or 
ascospores. These spore-bearing sacs | 0} 
2 QU00000 
etn 
(singular, ascus; plural, asci) are end- 
cells in the sporogenous tissue of the 
fruit of the fungus, and they tend to _ Fic. 94.—Develop- 
. 5 ment of asci and 
develop in a layer of uniform height— ascospores. 
the so-called “hymenium.” 
334. The sexual organs where known consist of oogones 
and antherids, and, after fertilization, produce a spore- 
fruit (sporocarp) which includes the sacs and sac-spores 
(ascospores). ‘The most common number of ascospores 
is eight in each ascus; but it sometimes exceeds, and fre- 
quently falls short, of this number, there being sometimes 
no more than one or two. 
335. In addition to the ascospores there are generally 
one or more other kinds of spores which are developed 
asexually. Some of these are doubtless to be regarded as 
the equivalents of the conidia of the lower groups, and 
accordingly will be so named here. 
336. The Ascus Fungi include about 29,000 species, 
representing 15 orders and 86 families. In the treat- 
ment here a selection has been made of representative _ 
forms. 
