CAPSULAR FUNGI— PYRENOMYCETES 205 



or various species of Mucedineae of Hypomyces. The genus 

 Lasionectria includes such species of Ncctria as possess a hairy 

 perithecium, and in this way are analogous to the Sphaeriaceous 

 genus Venturia or the section Villosae of the old genus Bphaeria 

 of Fries. Gibbcrella closely resembles Cucurlitaria in habit, 

 but the perithecia, although dark, are waxy, and blue or violet. 

 Hyponcctria again includes species of the old genus Ncctria, 

 but the perithecia are immersed in the matrix. 



The third subfamily is Pseudonectrieae, and, as the name 

 indicates, links the Nectrioideae with the S])liacriaccac. The 

 substance of the perithecia is not of the fleshy or waxy con- 

 sistence of the first two families, but either membranaceous or 

 becoming horny, and not carbonaceous. The genus Mclcmo- 

 spora is somewhat analogous to Ccratostoma, the perithecia 

 furnished in most cases with an elongated beak-like rostrum 

 and brown sporidia. Another genus, Acrospermum, is placed 

 by Saccardo in Hysteriaccac, but Fries included it in SpJiacroj)- 

 sidcae through ignorance of the fructification. The species are 

 small, blackish, and of a club shape, with no pore at the apex, 

 otherwise analogous to Pocillum, amongst the Discomycetes, and 

 with similar long thread-like sporidia. Two or three other 

 small genera of little importance make up the total of this sub- 

 family and close the Hypocreaceae. 



The remaining families of the Pyrenoviycetcae have in past 

 times been known as the Sphaeriaceae, but we prefer to treat 

 them as two large groups, each containing several families. 

 The Compositae, in which either a few or a great number of 

 perithecia are collected together upon, or immersed in, a common 

 stroma ; and the Simjylices, in which the perithecia are distinct 

 from each other, and either clustered together or scattered. 

 Normally the colour is black, the substance membranaceous, or 

 carbonaceous, and dehiscence takes place through an apical 

 pore or ostiolum. Fries classified them entirely according to 

 the external features of the perithecia or stroma, and independ- 

 ently of the fructification. Saccardo classified them primarily 

 according to the fructification, and secondarily, in great part, 

 from external features, or these in combination with the 

 sporidia. 



The Compositae, or Compound Sphaeriaceae, contain the 



