1280 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



A very interesting group, mostly leaf-fungi, growing on living 

 and fading leaves of phanerogamic plants. The minute receptacles 

 would escape the eye of the fungus-hunter, if they were not, as is 

 usually the case, crowded together in a black araneous spot of 

 densely interwoven threads. 



2. Hypocreales. 



The representatives of this family appear in all shapes of the 

 Sphseriales (vide No. 4 belowj : clubs, pustules, diffuse thin crusts, 

 and isolated minute scattered perithecia ; but they differ by the 

 light-coloured (white, yellowish, reddish), soft (almost fleshy) 

 bodies, the perithecia appearing on the surface as crowded dark 

 minute points. 



The most striking species are those growing on insects and their 

 larvae and chrysalids. (Plate VIII, A.) 



3. Dothideales. (Plate VII, B.) 

 Mostly leaf-fungi, forming shining carbonaceous circles or 



stripes. On branches, th.Qj produce pustulate rough black 

 tumours, which are easily recognized. 



Fig' 7. — Poronia oedipus. 



-Section of the 

 club of a Xylaria 

 showing' the 



small dark recep- 

 tacles (perithe- 

 cia). 



4. Sphseriales. 



The most common forms are the following : — 



''a) Receptacles (perithecia) crowded and immersed in a 

 compact, solid carbonaceous vegetative ' stroma", black 



