262 TEXT-BOOK OF FUNGI 



Brefeld includes Protomyces, Ascoidea, and Thelebolus, in 

 the Hemiascomycetes ; other authors have also from time 

 to time suggested the inclusion of other genera, but the 

 whole subject is in an unsatisfactory condition, and the 

 Hemiasci forms at present a sort of dumping-ground for 

 forms approaching the Ascomycetes, but not coinciding 

 with preconceived ideas bearing on classification. 



Salmon and myself have given reasons for including the 

 genus Thelebolus in the Ascomycetes, the principal of which 

 are : the undoubted presence of from one to three asci 

 enclosed within the pseudoparenchymatous outer protective 

 covering; the origin of this protective covering or open 

 perithecium from several cells, and not from a single cell, 

 homologous with the sporangiophore as stated by Brefeld ; 

 the ascus is at first uninucleate in Thelebolus, and not 

 multinucleate as in sporangia ; finally, the variability in 

 the size of the ascus, and in the contained number of 

 spores, is not greater than in Ryparobius and allied genera, 

 included by Brefeld in the Ascomycetes, and closely allied, 

 if even generically distinct, from Thelebolus. 



Protomyces does not appear to belong to the Hemiasci, 

 even from Brefeld's point of view. 



The genus Ascoidea^ founded by Brefeld, is a remarkable 

 form which certainly does not suggest a primitive stage. 

 The entire mass consists of a more or less cushion-shaped 

 body of a reddish colour up to 3 cm. long by 12 mm. 

 thick. Long, straggling branched, rather closely septate 

 hyphae, bear groups of oblong one-celled conidia at or near 

 the ends of the branchlets, the tip of the branchlet being 

 often terminated by a structure considered as an ascus by 

 Brefeld. This ascus is elliptic-oblong, and contains 

 myriads of minute spores which escape through an apical 



