1 16 CRYPTOGAMIA FUNGI. 



118. PENICILLIUM. Mould-like; sterile filaments decumbent, 



jointed, free, simple or branched ; fertile ones erect, ter- 

 minated with a pencil-like tuft of branches, among which 

 the globular pellucid seeds are clustered. 



119. BOTRYTIS. Filaments simple or branched, scattered or 



compacted, jointed, free ; fertile ones erect, with simple 

 summits ; seeds globose or oblong, collected about the 

 branches or the summits of the filaments. 



f -f- -|- Filaments decumbent, long, interwoven. 



120. RACODIUM. Filaments felted, branched, opake, scarcely 



jointed, persistent ; the seeds in imperfect clusters scat- 

 tered amongst the filaments. 



121. BYSSUS. Filaments branched, interwoven, pellucid, slen- 



der, and fugitive. 



122. HIMANTIA. Filaments creeping, closely appressed to the 



subjacent body, branched in a radiating manner, unjointed, 

 persistent. 



66. SPHUERIA. 



OES. The essential character of the Spharia is a globular or 

 flask-shaped capsule of a horny texture, filled with a pulp, in 

 which the slender pellucid tubes containing the seeds are im- 

 mersed, and which at maturity is discharged by a round aperture 

 in the summit of the capsule. These capsules are often sunk 

 and concealed in a peculiar parenchyma or base, but this is as 

 often entirely wanting. The species grow on dead wood and 

 leaves, except a few which infest leav es before they show any ap- 

 pearance of decay ; and they commence in general under the bark 

 or epidermis, which they perforate and remove, that other agents 

 may carry on the work of ruin they have begun. They are al- 

 m ost all of small size, and of a black, brown, or red colour, 



