70 FUNGI. 
prominent feature, and hence termed Coniomycetes ; the other, 
in which the threads are most noticeable, is Hyphomycetes. 
In the former of these, the reproductive system seems to pre- 
ponderate so much over the vegetative, that the fungus appears 
to be all spores. The mycelium is often nearly obsolete, and 
the short pedicels so evanescent, that a rusty or sooty powder 
represents the mature fungus, infesting the green parts of living 
plants. This is more especially true of one or two orders. It 
will be most convenient to recognize two artificial sub-families 
for the purpose of illustration, in one of which the species are 
developed on living, and in the other on dead, plants. We will 
commence with the latter, recognizing first those which are 
developed beneath the cuticle, and then those which are super- 
ficial, Of the sub-cuticular, two orders may be named as the 
representatives of this group in Britain, these are the Sphero- 
nemei, in which the spores are contained in a more or less perfect 
perithecium, and the Melanconiei, in which there is manifestly 
none. The first of these is analogous to the Spheriacei of As- 
comycetous fungi, and probably consists largely of spermogonia 
of known species of Spheria, the relations of which have not 
hitherto been traced. The spores are produced on slender 
threads springing from the inner wall of the perithecium, and, 
when mature, are expelled from an orifice at the apex. This is 
11G, 39.—Ceuthospora phacidioides (Greville). 
the normal condition, to which there are some exceptions. In 
the Melanconiei, there is no true perithecium, but the spores are 
produced in like manner upon a kind of stroma or cushion 
