218 Prof. G. de Notaris on the Tribe Spheeriacee. 
but from having too often preferred characters more ready of 
access to those of internal structure, and trivial differences to the 
organs of fructification, they led students astray from the analyti¢ 
method formerly adopted by the immortal Micheli, who, assisted 
by the power of their own minds, would otherwise have guided 
them by a surer and more noble path. The works of Micheli 
were often consulted, but his observations were either carelessly 
passed over or considered incomprehensible, and we have seen 
several of our contemporaries advance facts as new which had 
already been published in the ‘ Nova Plantarum Genera.’ 
Of all the divisions of the mycological kingdom, that of the 
Pyrenomycetes or Hypoxyla especially appears to me most stri- 
kingly to prove what I have above asserted. Analyse the works 
of Persoon, Fries, Duby, Wallroth and Chevalier, and you will 
find the form and colours of the perithecia, the way in which they 
open, the mode in which they burst from the matrix, the stroma, 
the colour, the consistence of the nucleus, accurately described ; 
but of the parts of which the nucleus itself is composed, of the 
parts in which the essential and classical characters really reside, 
of the fructification, of the internal structure of the conceptacula, 
there is no intimation whatever, or they give them joined to the 
others as of secondary importance and out of mere compliment. 
Thus it is that in this family myriads of errors and contradic- 
tions are met with at every step. We find, for example, some 
species of Spheria placed among the Cytispore, because the nu- 
cleus bursts from the perithecium in the form of a tendril; to 
Lophium we find pulverulent sporidia assigned, because they are 
thread-shaped and equal in length to the asci. Among the 
Spheria we find species which have the nucleus composed of 
sporidia only—species which belong to Spheronema, and in short 
true Pezize, because in colour, form, and mode of growth they 
present the semblance of a perithecium. 
Among the general characters of Fries’ sections of the im- 
mense genus Spheria, based principally and sometimes with 
useless details on the existence or want of a stroma, or on the 
mode in which the perithecia are disposed, we certainly find the 
asci and sporidia mentioned, but the sporidia in the same sections 
differ immensely in the several species in form, structure or size. 
We find allied species dispersed in different sections or even iden- 
tical species, solely from their having attacked vegetables of dif- 
ferent families or parts of different duration. 
I do not hesitate to assert this, having had the advantage of 
procuring an authentic copy of the entire collection of the Sele- 
romycetes Suecici of Fries, possessing also the greater part of the 
types published in the ‘ Fasciculi’ of the enlightened Prof. Kunze, 
those illustrated by Montagne in his ‘ Notice sur les Plantes 
