IMPERFECT CAPSULAR FUNGI— SPHAEROPSIDEAE 263 



erumpent, and consist of a number of perithecia aggregated 

 upon a basal stroma. Babenhorstia, and especially Fuckelia, 

 have a subglobose stroma, in which are fertile cells, so that in 

 habit and structure there is a similarity to some species of the 

 ascigerous genus Fuckelia of the Melogrammeae. Placosphaeria, 

 on the other hand, has an effused stroma resembling Bhytisma, 

 or certain species of Phyllachora. The four remaining genera 

 possess a stroma, more or less like Valsa, especially so in 

 Cytospora, in which the sporules are small and sausage-shaped. 

 It is probable that all the species in this genus are stylospor- 

 ous conditions of Valsa. The genus Cytosporella only differs 

 from Cytospora in having the sporules either globose or ovoid ; 

 and Fusicoccum again in the sporules being large and straight, 

 and mostly fusiform ; so that these three genera resemble Valsa 

 in habit, but differ amongst themselves in the form of the 

 sporules. Centhospora might be included in the same series, 

 but the stroma is firmer, and the spore-bearing cells have the 

 converging necks mostly united in a central orifice. The 

 sporules are cylindrical and typically straight. It is very 

 usual, even if not universal, for the mature sporules which are 

 held together in a pasty mass to be ejected in the form of a 

 tendril, or a contorted thread. Thus concludes the section 

 Hyalosporae of the Sphaerioid family of the Sphaeropsideae, 

 including an enumeration of not less than 2625 species. 



The Phaeosporae section has the sporules continuous, and 

 coloured either brown or sooty. The number of genera is 

 comparatively small, and of these four have the perithecia 

 subglobose and smooth. Two of these are practically old 

 genera, since Sphaeropsis was recognised by Fries, although 

 not limited, as now, to species with coloured sporules. It is 

 in all respects the corresponding genus to Diplodia, but with 

 continuous, and not uniseptate, sporules, as in that instance. 

 Coniothyrium is closely allied to Sphaeropsis, but the perithecia 

 are normally smaller, as are also the sporules, which are large 

 and elliptical in Sphaerovsis, small and globose, or ovoid, in 

 Coniothyrium. The genus Harhnessia closely resembles Melan- 

 coniurn in the sporules, and also in their ejection when 

 mature, and the consequent blackening of the matrix, but 

 differs in the possession of a distinct perithecium. In 



