ASCIGEROUS FUNGI— ASCOMYCETES 165 



groups of complete Fungi to recognise the spores. The 

 Uredinei had special terms for the different stages of the cycle, 

 as commonly in use. The imperfect Fungi with naked exposed 

 fructification, as Hyphomycetes, appropriated the term conidia. 

 The other imperfect Fungi, in which the fructification was more 

 or less enclosed in a perithecium, cup, or cell, such as the 

 Sphaeropsideae, have spore-bodies with the name of sjporules. 

 By adhering to these terms much trouble and confusion will 

 be spared to the student when he comes to consult systematic 

 works for himself. 



The lowest and simplest form of Ascomycetes is to be 

 found in the genus Ascomyces or Eomascus, in which the asci 

 are not compacted into a hymenium, but are loosely arranged 

 upon a delicate mycelium, without any definite receptacle or 

 excipulum being present. In the more typical forms the 

 mycelium gives rise to a receptacle of some kind, either closed 

 or open, in which a compact hymenium is developed, and the 

 whole Fungus assumes a definite and determinate form. From 

 certain features in this receptacle the entire Ascomycetes may 

 be classed in three or four distinct groups, and are thus char- 

 acterised : — Pyrenomyceteae, with a distinct perithecium, which 

 is at first closed, but at length opening by a pore at the apex, 

 or dehiscing by fracture, so as to allow the mature sporidia to 

 escape. Discomyceteae, often fleshy or waxy, with a discoid or 

 cup-shaped excipulum, soon expanded, and exposing a plane or 

 concave hymenium, from which the sporidia are ejected when 

 mature. Hysteriaceae, intermediate between Pyrenomyceteae 

 and Discomyceteae, substance more or less coriaceous, at first 

 closed, afterwards dehiscing by an elongated mouth, gaping 

 when moist, and then exhibiting a compact hymenium. Allied 

 to Pyrenomyceteae by the coriaceous excipulum and the connivent 

 lips of the orifice, through such a family as Lophiostomaceae ; 

 but with a tendency towards Discomyceteae in the compact 

 hymenium, which becomes exposed when moist, and is thus 

 suggestive of Phacidiaceae. Finally, Tuberaceae, in which the 

 Fungus is normally subterranean and fleshy, the internal sub- 

 stance containing irregular cavities or cells, the walls of which 

 are lined by the hymenium ; never dehiscent, so that the 

 sporidia are only liberated by the decay of the entire Fungus. 



