312 INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



332. We have hitherto considered those moulds which 

 possess fertile threads consisting of a single cell, or a single row 

 of articulations. We have, however, shown that Coremium, 

 whose stem consists of a compact mass of threads, is merely a 

 concrete Penicillium. We come now to those Hyplwmycetes 

 in which the stem is either essentially compound, whether 

 consisting merely of an agglomeration of threads, or of threads 

 so closely compacted that the filamentous structure is no longer 

 visible, and replaced by cells, still possessing, however, for the 

 most part, a strictly longitudinal direction, though in some 

 cases, as in Epicoccum, there is no such disposition. This 

 genus is, however, very anomalous, and is remarkable for its 

 large, often compound and granulated spores, which depart 

 from the normal character of the tribe.* 



333. In some cases, as in Volutella, the short compact base, 

 which produces a little bed of spores much after the manner 

 of an Helotium, except that they are naked instead of being 

 contained in asci, is surrounded by a delicate fringe of hyaline 

 bristles. In Stilhum and Corallodendron, we have a first 

 approach in perfect Fungi to Hymenomycetous forms, which 

 were, however, shadowed out beforehand by the spurious genus 

 Tuhercularia, from some forms of which particular species of 

 Stilhum are scarcely distinguishable, or still more faintly as 

 an analogue in Aspergilliis. The species assume brilliant 

 colours, and under the form of Stilhum lateritium and S. 

 cinnahaTrinum are pretty generally distributed in warmer dis- 

 tricts. If the stem of such species be reduced to a mere plane 

 or a little pulvinate point, we have at once such genera as 

 Fusarium ; and if Ciliciopodium be compared with Volu- 

 tella, we see at once the propriety of such a notion, for the 

 former is nothing more than a stipitate Volutella. Some 

 species of Stilhum originate in the inner substance of the bark, 

 bursdng ultimately through the external strata. With the 

 exception of Stilhum and GoTallodendron, the genera all 



* The mycelium of this genus is often of a deep blood red, causing 

 blood-staius on linen, fruit, and other substances. I have a curious 

 equally abnormal North American genus Cheirom>jccs, Berk, and Curt., 

 which on a cellular base bears digitate spores (Fig. 70, c). 



