56 FUNGI. 



sacs, containing very large and beautiful, often coloured, sporidia. 

 These latter have either a smooth, warted, spinulose, or lacunose 

 epispore, and, as will be seen from the figures in Tulasne's 

 Monograph, * or those in the last volume of Corda's great work,f 

 are attractive microscopical objects. In some cases, it is not 

 difficult to detect paraphyses, but in others they would seem to 

 be entirely absent. A comparatively large number have been 

 discovered and recorded in Great Britain,^ but of these none 

 are more suitable for study of general structure than the ordi- 

 nary truffle of the markets. 



The structure of the remaining Ascomycetes can be studied 

 tinder two groups, i.e., the fleshy Ascomycetes, or, as they have 

 been termed, the Discomycetes, and the hard,or carbonaceous Asco- 

 mycetes, sometimes called the Pyrenomycetes. Neither of these 

 names gives an accurate idea of the distinctions between the two 

 groups, in the former of which the discoid form is not universal, 

 and the latter contains somewhat fleshy forms. But in the Dis- 

 comycetes the hymenium soon becomes more or less exposed, 

 and in the latter it is enclosed in a perithecium. The Discomy- 

 cetes are of two kinds, the pileate and the cup-shaped. Of the 

 pileate such a genus as Gyromitra or Helvella is, in a certain 

 sense," analogous to the Agarics amongst Hymenomycetes, with a 

 superior instead of an inferior hymenium, and enclosed, not 

 naked, spores. Again, Geoglossum is somewhat analogous to 

 Clavaria. Amongst the cup-shaped, Peziza is an Ascomycetous 

 Cypliella. But these are perhaps more fanciful than real 

 analogies. 



Recently Boudier has examined one group of the cup-shaped 

 Discomycetes, the Ascobolei^ and, by making a somewhat free uso 

 of his Memoir, we may arrive at a general idea of the struc- 

 ture in the cupulate Discomycetes. They present themselves at 



* Tulasne, "Fungi Hypogrei," 1851. 



f 1 Corda, " Icones Fungorum," vol. vi. 



Berkeley and Broome, in "Ann. of Nat. Hist." 1st ser. vol. xviii. (1846), 

 p. 73 ; Cooke, in "Seem. Journ. Bot." 



Boudier (E.), "Memoire sur les Ascoboles," in "Ann. des Sci. Nat." 5 m 

 B*r. vol. x (1869). 



