CLASSIFICATION. 71 



formed from the mycelium, and, when mature, are expelled 

 through a rupture of the cuticle beneath which they are gene- 

 rated, often issuing in long gelatinous tendrils. Here, again, 

 the majority of what were formerly regarded as distinct species 

 have been found, or suspected, to be forms of higher fungi. The 

 Torulacei represent the superficial fungi of this family, and these 

 consist of a more or less developed mycelium, which gives rise 

 to fertile threads, which, by constriction and division, mature 

 into moniliform chains of spores. The species mostly appear 

 as blackish velvety patches or stains on the stems of herbaceous 

 plants and on old weathered wood. 



Much interest attaches to the other sub-family of Coniomycetes, 

 in which the species are produced for the most part on living 

 plants. So much has been discovered during recent years of the 

 polymorphism which subsists amongst the species in this section, 

 that any detailed classification can only be regarded as pro- 

 visional. Hence we shall proceed here upon the supposition 

 that we are dealing with autonomous species. In the first place, 

 we must recognize a small section in which a kind of cellular 

 peridium is present. This is the ^Ecidiacei^ or order of " cluster 

 cups." The majority of species are very beautiful objects under 

 the microscope ; the peridia are distinctly cellular, and white or 

 pallid, produced beneath the cuticle, through which they burst, 

 and, rupturing at the apex, in one genus in a stellate manner, 

 so that the teeth, becoming reflexed, resemble delicate fringed 

 cups, with the orange, golden, brown, or whitish spores or 

 pseudospores nestling in the interior.* These pseudospores 

 are at first produced in chains, but ultimately separate. In 

 many cases these cups are either accompanied or preceded by 

 spermogonia. In two other orders there is no peridium. In 

 the Ctfomacei, the, pseudospores are more or less globose or 

 ovate, sometimes laterally compressed and simple; and in 

 Puccinicei, they are elongated, often subfusiform and septate. 

 In both, the pseudospores are produced in tufts or clusters 

 direct from the mycelium. The Cceomacei might again be sub- 



* Corcla, "Icones Fungorum," vol. iii. fig. 45. 



