CLASSIFICATION. 73 
Distinet hymenium none. Pseudospores either solitary or con- 
catenate, produced on the tips of generally short threads, which 
are either naked or contained ina perithecium, rarely compacted 
into a gelatinous mass, at length producing minute spores =Coni0- 
MYCETES. 
The last family of the sporifera is Hyphomycetes, in which the 
threads are conspicuously developed. These are what are more 
commonly called “moulds,” including some of the most elegant 
and delicate of microscopic forms. It is true of many of these, 
as well as of the Coniomycetes, that they are only conidial forms 
of higher fungi; but there will remain a very large number of 
species which, as far as present knowledge extends, must be ac- 
cepted as autonomous. In this family, we may again recognize 
three subdivisions, in one of which the threads are more or less 
compacted into a common stem, in another the threads are free, 
and in the third the threads can scarcely be distinguished from 
the mycelium. It is this latter group which unites the Hypho- 
mycetes with the Coniomycetes, the affinities being increased by the 
great profusion with which the spores are developed. The first 
group, in which the fertile threads are united so as to form a 
compound stem, consists of two small orders, the Isariacei and the 
Stilbacei, in the former of which the spores are dry, and in the 
latter somewhat gelatinous. Many of the species closely imitate 
forms met with in the Hymenomycetes, such as Clavaria; and, 
in the genus Isaria, it is almost beyond doubt that the species 
found on dead insects, moths, spiders, flies, ants, &c., are merely 
the conidiophores of species of Torrubia.* 
The second group is by far the largest, most typical, and 
attractive in this family. It contains the black moulds and 
white moulds, technically known as the Dematiei and the 
Mucedines. In the first, the threads are more or less corticated, 
that is, the stem has a distinct investing membrane, which peels 
off like a bark ; and the threads, often also the spores, are dark- 
coloured, as if charred or scorched. In many cases, the spores 
are highly developed, large, multiseptate, and nucleate, and sel- 
* Tulasne, L. R. and C., ‘Selecta Fungorum Carpologia,” vol. iii. pp. 4-19. 
