INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTO(}AMTC BOTANY. 



819 



The following table shows the characters and affinities of 

 the principal groups : 



Cceomacei. — Spores subglobose, rarely vesicular ; 

 simple, or if formed from the arti- 

 culatious of the fertile threads de- 

 ciduous. 



Pucciniai. — Spores mostly oblong, septate. 



Torulacei. — Spores more or less moniliform, 

 formed by the rupture of the 

 fertile threads. 



Phragmotrichiacei. — Sjoores arranged iu 

 threads. 



Melanconiei. — Perithecium manifestly none. 



Sph(eronemei.—TeYii\\bQ,mm present, or rudi- 

 mentary. 



1. C^OMACEi, Corda. 



Mycelium traversing the cells of living plants, mostly deli- 

 cate, giving rise to very short or obsolete fertile threads, ter- 

 minated by single or concatenated, very rarely vesicular spores. 

 Spores, when germinating, producing a second order of spores, 

 and these occasionally a third, &c. Pycnidia not infrequent. 



343. We commence with the true eijiphytal i3arasites which 

 are so abundantly diffused everywhere. The more they are 

 examined, the more complicated do we find their structure. 

 They consist essentially of proportionally large spores, some- 

 times bursting through their outer integument, either single 

 or forming moniliform threads, arising from a distinct myce- 

 lium, which penetrates the tissues of the matrix. It is highly 

 probable that in many species, which never exhibit the spores 

 under the form of necklaces, new spores are formed at the tip 

 of the old sporophores as fast as the old spores fall off, and 



