CAPSULAR FUNGI— PYRENOMYCETES 205 



or various species of Mucedineae of Hypomyces. The genus 

 Zasionectria includes such, species of Nectria as possess a hairy 

 perithecium, and in this way are analogous to the Sphaeriaceous 

 genus Venturia or the section Villosae of the old genus Sphaeria 

 of Pries. Gibberella closely resembles Cucurhitaria in habit, 

 but the perithecia, although dark, are waxy, and blue or violet. 

 Hyponectria again includes species of the old genus Nectria, 

 but the perithecia are immersed in the matrix. 



The third subfamily is Pseudonectrieae, and, as the name 

 indicates, links the Nectrioideae with the Sphaeriaceae. The 

 substance of the perithecia is not of the fleshy or waxy con- 

 sistence of the first two families, but either membranaceous or 

 becoming horny, and not carbonaceous. The genus Melano- 

 spora is somewhat analogous to Ceratostoma, the perithecia 

 furnished in most cases with an elongated beak-like rostrum 

 and brown sporidia. Another genus, Acrospermum, is placed 

 by Saccardo in Hysteriaceae, but Fries included it in Sphaerop- 

 sideae through ignorance of the fructification. The species are 

 small, blackish, and of a club shape, with no pore at the apex, 

 otherwise analogous to Pocillum, amongst the Discomycetes, and 

 with similar long thread-like sporidia. Two or three other 

 small genera of little importance make up the total of this sub- 

 family and close the Hypocreaceae. 



The remaining families of the Pyrenomyceteae have in past 

 times been known as the Sphaeriaceae, but we prefer to treat 

 them as two large groups, each containing several families. 

 The Compositae, in which either a few or a great number of 

 perithecia are collected together upon, or immersed in, a common 

 stroma ; and the Simplices, in which the perithecia are distinct 

 from each other, and either clustered together or scattered. 

 Normally the colour is black, the substance membranaceous, or 

 carbonaceous, and dehiscence takes place through an apical 

 pore or ostiolum. Fries classified them entirely according to 

 the external features of the perithecia or stroma, and independ- 

 ently of the fructification. Saccardo classified them primarily 

 according to the fructification, and secondarily, in great part, 

 from external features, or these in combination with the 

 sporidia. 



The Compositae, or Compound Sphaeriaceae, contain the 



