296 PHYSOMYCETES. PART n. 



energy of their mycelia in draining the vital juices of 

 the plants on which they live in order to form such 

 various kinds of fruit ; and the quantity of fruit produced 

 is so enormous, that if the whole were to germinate no 

 genus of plants for which they have an affinity could es- 

 cape annihilation. Other species of Erysiphe have at 

 least three different modes of reproduction. The peri- 

 thecia of some of these fungi are beautiful objects for 

 the microscope. 



The PHYSOMYCETES, which form the sixth and last 

 order of the great fungus family, have bladder-like fertile 

 cells scattered on threads, the number of sporidia with- 

 in the cells being indefinite. The Antennariei are dark 

 coloured felt-like fungi which run over the leaves of living 

 trees, and have fruit on black threads, which in some 

 species,, when magnified, resemble the antennae of certain 

 beetles. The species of this order are not common in 

 Britain, and they are supposed to be only a condition 

 of some other fungi. They are certainly spore-bearing 

 plants, yet the fruit-bearing cells of the Antennaria 

 Eobinsonii sometimes contain a ready formed miniature 

 of the parent plant waiting to be set free, a singular 

 analogy between these microscopic fungi and flowering 

 plants. 



The order Mucorini, or moulds, has threads spring- 

 ing from the spawn, bearing on their extremities large 

 vascular sacs containing asci with spore cells. The 

 genus Ascophora contains several remarkable species, 

 as Ascophora elegans, which has two kinds of fruit, 

 and attacks bread while yet hot from the oven : however, 

 the spores were probably in the dough, for it has been 

 ascertained that the spores of some of the lower fungi 

 retain their vitality after being exposed to the tem- 

 perature of boiling water. The Mucors are probably 

 found on decayed and decaying matter all -over the 



