CAPSULAR FUNGI— PYRENOMYCETES 211 



family except the Valseae, next to be enumerated, whilst a little 

 experience will soon enable him to surmount this temporary 

 difficulty. 



The subfamily Valseae contains an immense number of 

 species, which are pustular and erumpent. The stroma is 

 formed from the altered matrix. The perithecia are quite 

 distinct, and mostly arranged in a circle, with convergent 

 necks. The principal genus is Valsa, in which the perithecia 

 are collected in more or less definite clusters, immersed in the 

 bark of trees or of their branches and twigs, and either disposed 

 in a simple circle or a circular group, with the necks converging 

 towards the centre, so as to form an erumpent disc, which splits 

 the bark (Fig. 99). The sporidia are hyaline, and either con- 

 tinuous or septate according to the subgenera. The largest 

 number of species have small hyaline 

 sausage - shaped sporidia, which is the 

 typical Valsa. Those in which the sporidia 

 are more than eight in each ascus are 

 either Valsella or Goronophora, as sub- 

 genera. When the sporidia are only 

 eight, the species are again subdivided FlG - 99.— Perithecia of 

 into those in which the ostiolum is sulcate, 



as JEutypella ; and into those in which the ostiolum is not sul- 

 cate, but the disc is whitish, gray, or yellowish, and then called 

 Leucostoma ; or the ostiolum is not sulcate, and there is no pallid 

 disc, which is Euvalsa, or true Valsa. In two other small sub- 

 genera, with like sporidia, when the perithecia are four in a 

 group, or a small number, it is Quaternaria ; and when a larger 

 number, and loosely disposed, or free, then Calosphaeria ; and thus 

 the series of the species of Valsa with sausage-shaped sporidia 

 is complete. In a second section with simple hyaline sporidia, 

 these are of some other form than sausage-shaped, as represented 

 by the subgenera Gryptosporella and Gryptqspora. In a third 

 section the sporidia are still colourless, but septate, that is to 

 say, uniseptate in Chorostate and triseptate in Calospora. Closely 

 resembling Valsa in habit, or external appearance, is the genus 

 Melanconis (Fig. 100), in which the sporidia are uniseptate, 

 and either hyaline or coloured, accompanied by or associated 

 with a conidial stage, which resembles the stylosporous genus 



