CLUSTER-CUPS. 5 



Goniomycetes, from two Greek words^ meaning 

 ^^ dust-fungi/^ This group or family includes 

 several smaller groups^ termed orders^ which are 

 analogous to the natural orders of flowering plants. 

 Without staying to enumerate the characteristics 

 of these orders^ we select one in which the spores 

 are enclosed in a distinct peridium^ as in our typical 

 plant they are contained within the cups. This 

 order is the JEcidiaceiy so called after JEcidmin^ the 

 largest and most important of the genera included 

 within this order. 



The j3^cidiacei are always developed on living 

 plants^ sometimes on the flowers^ fruity petioles^ or 

 sterns^ but most commonly on the leaves : occa- 

 sionally on the upper surface^ but generally on the 

 inferior. The different species are distributed over 

 a wide area; many are found in Europe and North 

 America^ some occur in Asia^ Africa^ and Australia. 

 When the cryptogamic plants of the world shall 

 have been as widely examined and as well under- 

 stood as the phanerogamic plants have been^ we 

 shall be in a better position to determine the 

 geographical distribution of the different orders of 

 fungi. In the present incomplete state of our 

 knowledge^ all such efforts will be unsatisfactory. 



But to return to the goatsbeard^ and its cluster- 

 cups. The little fungus is called JEcidimn trago- 

 pogonis, the first being the name of the genus^ and 

 the last that of the species. Let us warn the young 

 student against falling into the error of supposing 



