ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 PEPJTHECIUM OF MELIOLA, A GENUS OF TROPICAL 

 EPIPHYLLOUS FUNGI. 



By H. Marshall Ward, B.A., Berkeley Felloiv of Owens College, 

 Victoria University ; late Cryptogamist to the Ceylon Government. 



[Plates I— II.] 



During the course of recent researches into the nature of parasitic 

 fungi, my attention was arrested for some time by several forms 

 of epiphytal growths which occupy a sort of half-way position between 

 the more pronounced endophyllous parasites and those fungi which 

 cannot be looked upon as requiring more than a hold-fast or shelter 

 from their hosts. Among these are the Meliolas, a group established 

 by Fries in 1825 to receive certain tropical fungi. 1 In the ' Annales 

 des Sciences Naturelles' for 1851 2 is a memoir by Bornet on the 

 species constituting the genus Meliola, in which the characters of 

 these remarkable epiphytes are enumerated and examined, and a 

 classification of the known forms proposed : this paper is a standing 

 authority on the subject, and I shall have occasion to refer to it at 

 intervals subsequently, partly to confirm some of Bomet's work, partly 

 to add new observations and correct older views as to the nature or 

 significance of various points. 



The Meliolas are minute epiphyllous fungi, belonging to the 



Pyrenomycetes, the deep-brown or black mycelium of which appears as 



1 ' Systema Orbis Vegetabilium.' 

 3 Ser, iii., Bot,, t. xvi,, pp. 257, &c. 



