278 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF FUNGI 



whilst they differ from the former in having no hymenium 

 and being deficient in true basidia, and from the latter in the 

 absence of sexual reproduction. The Fungi themselves are 

 either superficial or subsuperficial, and the hyphae or conidia- 

 bearers are, for the most part, strongly developed. Typically 

 there is a creeping, septate mycelium, seated up6n or pene- 

 trating the matrix, which gives rise to erect, more or less 

 developed, hyphae, or spore-bearers, which produce terminally 

 or laterally naked spores or conidia. Most of them are 

 saprophytic on dead animal or vegetable substances, whilst a 

 limited number are parasitic upon living plants. 



The four families are the Mucedineae, or " white moulds," 

 with the threads colourless, pale, or brightly coloured, often 

 fasciculate, but not coherent, with conidia of the same colour ; 

 the Dematieae, or " black moulds," having the hyphae brown, 

 or black, rather rigid, and not coherent, rarely pale and then 

 with the conidia blackish ; the Stilbeae, with the hyphae either 

 pallid or brown, densely cohering in long stem-like fascicles ; 

 and the Tuhercularieae, with the hyphae pallid or brown, 

 densely conglutinate in wart-like pustules, or sporodochia or 

 spore-beds, often forming a rather thick stroma at the base. 

 Thus, it will be observed that in two of the families the 

 hyphae are free and distinct from each other, being typically 

 pale in the one and dark coloured in the other ; whilst in the 

 other two families the hyphae are closely coherent and elongated 

 in the one, and shortened, conglutinate, and stromatic in the 

 other. The latter are for the most part erumpent and pustular. 



This, then, is the primary division of the Syphomycetes, of 

 which the largest, and most typical, of the two great sections 

 is that in which the erect threads or conidiophores are free of 

 each other, and not united in a common stem. These are the 

 moulds, which as yet are not known to possess any but a 

 simple and asexual reproduction, by means of conidia, but 

 which are considered to be genetically connected, by some 

 means not clearly manifest, with species belonging to other 

 orders of Fungi, and especially of the Ascomycetes. For the 

 better understanding of the principles on which the classifica- 

 tion of these imperfect Fungi has been reduced to a system, we 

 must examine the sections in further detail, commencing with 



