280 „ INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF FUNGI 



Fig. 127 '.—Rhopalo- 

 myces representing 

 the Macronemeae. 



conidia, or spores, of some kind can be detected, otherwise the 

 endeavour can only terminate in vexation of spirit. 



Eesuming our survey of the system at the point where it 

 is necessary to determine the character of the spore, or conidium, 

 and if it is uniseptate to seek it in the Didy- 

 mosporae, but if further septate in the Phrag- 

 mosporae, we shall soon discover that the 

 greater number of species have conidia which 

 are not septate at all, and therefore belong to 

 the section Amerosporae. At this point we 

 may leave the conidia and revert to the 

 hyphae or threads which bear them. In some 

 cases we shall observe that the conidiophores, 

 or conidia-bearers, are long threads, which 

 are sometimes simple, but in most cases 

 branched once, twice, or many times; these generally form 

 large, conspicuous woolly tufts, easily recognised by the naked 

 eye, and constitute the subsection Macronemeae, or, as we might 

 say, the subsection in which the threads or hyphae are strongly 

 developed, and quite distinct from the conidia (Fig. 127). Then 

 there is another and smaller section, the Micronemeae, in which 

 the threads are very short, and mostly 

 unbranched, so short, indeed, as only 

 just to be recognised, and, at times, 

 scarcely different from the spores or 

 conidia themselves (Fig. 128). In 

 nearly all the subdivisions of the various 

 families of the Hyphomycetes, such 

 subdivisions being based upon the char- 

 acter of the conidia, the genera are 

 associated in these two groups of 

 Macronemeae or Micronemeae, according as the conidia-bearing 

 threads are long and well developed or short and almost 

 obsolete. It would be wearisome and unnecessary here to 

 detail all the varied modifications of the conidia-bearers, or 

 the conidia, which are taken advantage of in the construction 

 of genera, or groups of genera. It must suffice to say that 

 most of the distinctions are based upon the form, or mode of 

 arrangement, of the conidia about the threads. For instance, 



Fig. 128.— One of 

 the Micronemeae Aegerita. 



