CLASSIFICATION. 75 



Physomycetes, in which there is no proper hymenium, and the 

 threads proceeding from the mycelium bear vesicles contain- 

 ing an indefinite number of sporidia. The fertile threads are 

 either free or only 'slightly felted. In the order Antennariei, the 

 threads are black and moniliform, more or less felted, bearing 

 irregular sporangia. A common fungus named Zasmidium 

 cellare, found in cellars, and incrusting old wine bottles, as 

 with a blackened felt, belongs to this order. The larger and 

 more highly-developed order, Mucorini, differs in the threads, 

 which are simple or branched, being free, 

 erect, and bearing the sporangia at the tips 

 of the thread, or branches. Some of the 

 species bear great external resemblance to 

 Mucedines until the fruit is examined, when 

 the fructifying heads, commonly globose or 

 ovate, are found to be delicate transparent 

 vesicles, enclosing a large number of minute 

 sporidia ; when mature, the sporangia burst 

 and the sporidia are set free. In some spe- 

 cies, it has long been known that a sort of Fl0 ' 

 conjugation takes place between opposite threads, which results 

 in the formation of a sporangium.* None of these species are 

 destructive to vegetation, appearing only upon decaying, and 

 not upon living, plants. A state approaching putrescence seems 

 to be essential to their vigorous development. The following 

 characters may be compared with those of the family pre- 

 ceding it : 



Filamentous, threads free or only slightly felted, bearing vesicles, 

 which contain indefinite sp0nWm=PHYSOMYCETES. 



In the last family, the Ascomycetes, we shall meet with a 

 very great variety of forms, all agreeing in producing sporidia 

 contained in certain cells called asci, which are produced from 

 the hymenium. In some of these, the asci are evanescent, 

 but in the greater number are permanent. In Onygenei, the 

 receptacle is either club-shaped or somewhat globose, and the 



* A. de Bary, translated in " Grevillea," vol. i. p. 167 ; Tulasne, "Ann. des 

 Sci. Nat." 6 me s6r. (1866), p. 211. 



