CLASSIFICATION. 75 
Physomycetes, in which there is no proper hymenium, and the 
threads proceeding from the mycelium bear vesicles contain. 
ing an indefinite number of sporidia. The fertile threads are 
either free or only slightly felted. In the order Antennarie:, the 
threads are black and moniliform, more or less felted, bearing 
irregular sporangia. A common fungus named Zasmidiwm 
cellare, found in cellars, and incrusting old wine bottles, as 
with a blackened felt, belongs to this order. The larger and 
more highly-developed order, Afwcorini, diflers in the threads, 
which are simple or branched, being free, 
erect, and bearing the sporangia at the tips 
of the thread, or branches. Some of the 
species bear great external resemblance to 
Mucedines until the fruit is examined, when 
the fructifying heads, commonly globose cr 
ovate, are found to be delicate transparent 
vesicles, enclosing a large number of minute 
sporidia ; when mature, the sporangia burst 
and the sporidia are set free. In some spe- 
cies, it has long been known that a sort of 
conjugation takes place between opposite threads, which results 
in the formation of a sporangium.* None of these species are 
destructive to vegetation, appearing only upon decaying, and 
not upon living, plants. A state approaching putrescence seems 
to be essential to their vigorous development, The following 
characters may be compared with those of the family pre- 
ceding it :— 
Filamentous, threads free or only slightly felted, bearing vesicles, 
which contain indefinite sporidia = PHYSOMYCETES. 
In the last family, the Ascomycetes, we shall meet with a 
very great variety of forms, all agreeing in producing sporidia 
contained in certain cells called asci, which are produced from 
the hymenium. In some of these, the asci are evanescent, 
but in the greater number are permanent. In Onygenei, the 
receptacle is either club-shaped or somewhat globose, and the 
* A. de Bary, translated in ‘ Grevillea,” vol. i. p. 167; Tulasne, ‘‘ Ann, des 
Sci. Nat.” 5™¢ sér. (1866), p. 211. ? 
Fic. 41.—Mucor caninus. 
