THE SPORE AND ITS DISSEMINATION. 125 
in Prosthemium may be said in some sort to resemble compound 
Hendersonia, being fusiform and multiseptate, often united at 
the base in a stellate manner. In this genus, as in Darluca, 
Cytispora, and the most of those belonging to the Mlelanconiei, 
the spores when mature are expelled from the orifice of the 
perithecium or spurious perithecium, either in the form of 
tendrils, or in a pasty mass. In these instances the spores are 
more or less involved in gelatine, and when expelled lie spread 
over the matrix, around the orifice; their ultimate diffusion 
being due to moisture washing them over other parts of the 
same tree, since it is probable that their natural area of 
dissemination is not large, the higher plants, of which they 
are mostly conditions, being developed on the same branches. 
More must be known of the relations between Melanconium 
and Tulasne’s spheriaceous genus Jfelanconis before we can 
appreciate entirely the advantage to Melanconium and some 
other genera, that the wide diffusion of their spores should be 
checked by involving them in mucus, or their being agglutinated 
to the surface of the matrix, only to be softened and diffused by 
rain. The spores in many species amongst the Melanconiei are 
Fic. 53.—Spore of Fic. 54.—Stylospores of Fic. 55.—Spores of Asterosporium 
Stegonosporium Coryneum disciforme. Hoffmann. 
cellulosum, 
remarkably fine; those of Stegonosporium have the endochrome 
partite and cellular. In Stilbospora and Coryneum the spores are 
multiseptate, large, and mostly coloured. In Asterosporium the 
