176 MICROSCOPIC FUNGI. 



to whom we are indebted for tliis species thus 

 describes its development. At first it appears as 

 a minute branched mould interspersed with globose 

 brownish conidia. As it advances in growth^ glo- 

 bose black peridia become visible amongst the 

 threads, clothed with and supported by alternately 

 branched obscurely-jointed filaments, the branches 

 of which generally form an acute angle with the 

 stem (fig. 254). The ramification of these is very 

 peculiar, the stem and main shaft of each sub- 

 division being almost constantly shortened and 

 surmounted by the branches given ofi* near its apex ; 

 this, again, is often abbreviated and another branch- 

 l^t given ofi*, which again surpasses it ; and occa- 

 sionally the same circumstance takes place a third 

 time. The apices are clavate and colourless ; the 

 rest of the filaments, when viewed by transmitted 

 light, brown, even, and pellucid : a few globose 

 conidia are usually attached to them (fig. 255). The 

 conceptacle is thin, black to the naked eye, of 

 an olive-brown under the microscope, filled with 

 amass of linear extremely transparent asci (fig. 256), 

 each containing a single row of broadly elliptic 

 chocolate sporidia. These have a paler border ; 

 sometimes the colour entirely vanishes, either from 

 age or abortion, and there is only a minute globose 

 nucleus or more probably a vesicle of air, in the 

 centre ; occasionally they become so transparent 

 that the globular bodies alone are visible. After 

 the conceptacles burst, several are frequently col- 



