i] GENERAL CHARACTERS OF THE FUNGI 5 



it may also become variously coloured. In the large majority of cases the 

 spore is enclosed by a double wall consisting of a delicate endospore and 

 an epispore which may be smooth or variously sculptured; it may develop 

 small projections and is then said to be warted or verrucose, or it may be 

 reticulate, exhibiting a number of more or less regular polygonal depressions 

 between which anastomosing ridges are present. 



Many conidia and other thin walled fungal spores possess the power, 

 in suitable media, of budding or sprouting; giving rise, that is to say, 

 to new cells as simple lateral outgrowths which are soon nipped off. This 

 method of propagation is shown in the conidia of the yeasts, in some of 

 which it has wholly superseded the development of a mycelium. Asco- 

 spores are found to bud in the Exoascaceae, and basidiospores in the 

 Ustilaginales. 



Classification. The fungi are divided into three great groups according 

 to the septation of their mycelium, and the characters of their principal 

 spores. 



FUNGI 



/eo-etative mycelium vegetative mycelium 

 aseptate septate 



I ~1 



characteristic spores characteristic spores 



endogenous, ascospores exogenous, basidiospores 



PHYCOMYCETES ASCOMYCETES BASIDIOMYCETES 



They may be further subdivided as follows: 



PHYCOMYCETES 



I 



P 



n 



mycelium rudimentary mycelium well 



or obsolete deve oped 



sexual reproduction by sexual reproduction by 



oospo.es ; asexual zygospores ; asexual 



spores often motile spores non- 



Archimycetes Oo^ycetes ,^^^ 



I'. 



