70 FUNGI. 



prominent feature, and hence termed Coniovnycetes ; the other, 

 in which the threads are most noticeable, is Hi/phomycetes. 

 In the former of these, the reproductive system seems to pre- 

 ponderate so much over the vegetative, that the fungus appears 

 to be all spores. The mycelium is often nearly obsolete, and 

 the short pedicels so evanescent, that a rusty or sooty powder 

 represents the mature fungus, infesting the green parts of living 

 plants. This is more especially true of one or two orders. It 

 will be most convenient to recognize two artificial sub-families 

 for the purpose of illustration, in one of which the species are 

 developed on living, and in the other on dead, plants. We will 

 commence with the latter, recognizing first those which are 

 developed beneath the cuticle, and then those which are super- 

 ficial. Of the sub-cuticular, two orders may be named as the 

 representatives of this group in Britain, these are the Splicer o- 

 nemei, in which the spores are contained in a more or less perfect 

 perithecium, and the Jlfelanconiei, in which there is manifestly 

 none. The first of these is analogous to the SpJieeriacei of As- 

 comycetous fungi, and probably consists largely of spermogonia 

 of known species of Spliceria, the relations of which have not 

 hitherto been traced. The spores are produced on slender 

 threads springing from the inner wall of the perithecium, and, 

 when mature, are expelled from an orifice at the apex. This is 



S&.Oeuthospora pkacidioides (Grcville). 



the normal condition, to which there are some exceptions. In 

 the Melanconici, there is no true perithecium, but the spores are 

 produced in like manner upon a kind of stroma or cushion 



