THE FRUCTIFICATION 



47 



The excipulum, or cup-shaped receptacle, is also the form 

 which is assumed in some genera of the Sphaeropsideae in 

 which the external resemblance is again to that of the Dis- 

 comycetes. The cups are sessile, often erumpent on the stems 

 of herbaceous plants, and externally smooth or covered with 

 bristles — for example, in Uzcipula, Discella, and Ephelis, and 

 many others. The spores are produced on short sporophores 

 which grow side by side from the inner surface of the recep- 

 tacle, as the asci are produced in Peziza, but without forming 

 a compact hymenium. 



From these brief notices it is evident that fructification 

 of widely diverse types may be found to be produced within 

 receptacles which are 

 open above and 

 therefore cup-shaped. 

 The most prevalent 

 form is the asci- 

 gerous, in which the 

 sporidia are produced 

 in asci, packed close- 

 ly side by side and 

 forming a compact 

 disc, as in the Disco- 

 mycetes. An ana- 

 logous genus is found 

 in Hymenomycetes, 

 in which the spores 

 are produced upon 

 basidia, as they are 

 in Corticium. 

 Amongst the Gastro- 

 mycetes the cup- 

 shaped receptacles 

 enclose lenticular 

 peridiola which con- 

 tain basidiospores. 



Tig. 27. — Crucihulum vulgare. Gard. Chron. 



And in Sphaeropsideae certain genera 

 with an open, cup -shaped receptacle produce naked spores, 

 or conidia, upon short sporophores. To these might be 

 added also, from the Uredines, the " cluster-cups " of Aecidium, 



