38 TEXT-BOOK OF FUNGI 



Peronospora, Cordyceps, etc., to speak of the specialised 

 structure bearing the conidia or asexual reproductive 

 bodies as the conidiophore, and the one bearing the 

 higher or sexual form of fruit as the sporophore. This 

 method, however, is not consistently followed, as in the 

 Basidiomycetes, where no sexual form of reproduction is 

 present, the only reproductive bodies being of asexual 

 origin, and hence should be called conidia; these are, 

 however, as a matter of fact always spoken of as spores, 

 and the structure producing them is called a sporophore. 

 On the other hand, in such genera as Xylaria, Thamno- 

 myces, etc., the same specialised structure or sporophore 

 first produces conidia, and afterwards the higher or 

 ascigerous form of fruit. 



In Mucor mucedo the conidiophore consists of a single 

 erect non-septate hypha, bearing a single sporangium at 

 its apex. In allied species the conidiophore bears a few 

 branches, each terminated by a sporangium containing 

 conidia, usually spoken of as spores. 



In a slightly more complex form the conidiophore com- 

 mences as a single upright hypha, which becomes more or 

 less branched above, the branches ending in a short pair 

 of branchlets, each bearing a conidium ; this type is 

 illustrated by various species of Peronospora and allied 

 forms. Further complexity is introduced where the lower 

 or sterile portion of the conidiophore is composed of a 

 loose fascicle of hyphae, the tips of which become free 

 from each other and more or less spreading above, forming 

 a head, the tip of each hypha bearing one, or a chain of 

 conidia, as in Stysanus, Isaria, etc. In Hypoxylon, Cordy- 

 ceps, Daldinia, etc., the sporophore becomes stout and 

 fleshy, and is composed of numerous hyphae compacted 



