THE SPORE AND ITS DISSEMINATION. 



125 



in ProstJiemium may be said in some sort to resemble compound 

 Hendersonia, being fusiform and multiseptate, often united, at 

 the base in a stellate manner. In this genus, as in Darluca, 

 Cytispora, and the most of those belonging to the Melanconiei, 

 the spores when mature are expelled from the orifice of the 

 perithecium or spurious perithecium, either in the form of 

 tendrils, or in a pasty mass. In these instances the spores are 

 more or less involved in gelatine, and when expelled lie spread 

 over the matrix, around the orifice ; their ultimate diffusion 

 being due to moisture washing them over other parts of the 

 same tree, since it is probable that their natural area of 

 dissemination is not large, the higher plants, of which they 

 are mostly conditions, being developed on the same branches. 

 More must be known of the relations between Melanconium 

 and Tulasne's sphaeriaceous genus Melanconis before we can 

 appreciate entirely the advantage to Melanconium and some 

 other genera, that the wide diffusion of their spores should be 

 checked by involving them in mucus, or their being agglutinated 

 to the surface of the matrix, only to be softened and diffused Jby 

 rain. The spores in many species amongst the Melanconiei are 



FIG. 53. Spore of 



Stegonosporium 



cellulosum. 



FIG. 54. Stylospores of 

 C'oryncum discifomne. 



FIG. 55. Spores of Asterosporium 

 Hqffmanni. 



remarkably fine ; those of Stegonosporium have the endochrome 

 partite and cellular. In Stillospora and Coryneum the spores are 

 multiseptate, large, and mostly coloured. In Asterosporium the 



