SECT. m. ISARIA. STILBACEI. 283 



many branches ending in long chaplets of fertile dust- 

 bearing cells. 



Points here and there on the felted envelope of the 

 caterpillars became of an orange colour, took the form 

 of a mycelium, and produced little orange coloured club- 

 shaped cells which shed abundance of reproductive dust 

 spores from a ring of white hairs on their summit. 

 Each caterpillar had from ten to fifteen of these coloured 

 clubs on its sides, which lost their brightness when they 

 grew old, and had shed their dust spores. These fungi 

 possessed all the characters of the Isaria crassa, or 

 Isaria farinosa of Fries. 



Later in the season other caterpillars on which this 

 club-shaped Isaria had not been produced, but which 

 were swollen and white with the felted spawn of the 

 parasite, gave out orange red club-shaped vessels of 

 a larger size and deeper tint than those of the nascent 

 Isariacei. They had no terminal ring of hairs, but 

 some of them had a red spore dust-bearing felt at 

 their base. Ultimately they assumed all the characters 

 of the Sphseria militaris of Ehrenberg or Cordyceps 

 militaris of Fries, which is a bright scarlet fungus half 

 an inch high with a fleshy upright stem ending in a 

 cup-shaped head containing long cylindrical sacs called 

 asci, in which the spore cells are so numerous as to re- 

 semble strings of beads. 9 This fungus, therefore, begins 

 as a member of the family Hyphomycetes, and ends as 

 a member of the family Ascomycetes. 



The order Stilbacei are little globose fungi with or 

 without a stalk, covered with semi-gelatinous spores. 

 They are united in cushion-like masses, on decayed 

 wood and dead twigs. The little scarlet masses on dead 

 currant branches so often seen in gardens, are examples. 



The order Dematiei are the black moulds found on 



9 ' Sur des Isaria et Sphseria Entomogens,' par MM. L. et H. Tulasne, de 

 I'lnstitut, ' A Tin ales des Sciences NatureUes,' 4me serie, 1857. 



