INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF FUNGI 



and sporidia triseptate. The genus AnUnnaria is more like 

 a dense black mould with nioniliform hyphae and apparently 

 minute perithecia, but the fructification is obscure, and hence 

 its true place and position is uncertain. The whole family of 

 Pcrisporiaccae contains about 700 species, and is an outside 

 group of Pyrcnomyceteae, joining the Hypliomycetcac on the one 

 hand with the Spliacriaceae on the other. 



The next family to be noticed is the Hypocreaceae, in itself 

 characteristic and distinct, in which most of the typical features 

 of the Pyrenomyccteae prevail, such as the ostiolate perithecium 

 and ascigerous fructification, but characterised specially by the 

 fleshy, or nearly fleshy, perithecia, usually pale or bright 

 coloured, but never carbonaceous. The stroma, when present, 

 is soft and between fleshy and waxy, rarely forming a subiculum. 

 Sporidia for the most part hyaline. Without indulging in too 

 great prolixity of detail, it may be observed that in our 

 arrangement,^ which is mainly a regrouping of Saccardo's 

 genera by external characters, we have recognised three sub- 

 families. In one of these, Hypocreoideae, the species are com- 

 j)osite, viz. seated upon or immersed in a stroma. In the 

 second, Nedrieae, the species are simple, viz. the perithecia are 

 distinct from each other, although sometimes densely caespitose. 

 And in the third, Pscudonectrieae, the perithecia are soft and 



membranaceous, or rostrate or 

 elongated, or clavate, some- 

 times becoming horny, either 

 whitish or dark coloured, and 

 in fact verging on Spliacriaceae. 

 The most highly developed 

 forms in the Hypocreoideae 

 are Claviccps (Fig. 91) and 

 Cordyceps, in which the species 

 assume a clavate or capitate 

 form, and the perithecia are 

 crowded on the upper portion 

 of a fleshy stroma (Fig. 92). Many of these are found on dead 

 insects, and their conidial forms were formerly known as species 

 of Isaria, a genus of Hyphomycetes. These are succeeded by 



^ " Synopsis Pyrenoiiiycetuiii," by M. C. Cooke in Grerillca. 



Fig. 91. — Claricejis on 



