SEXUAL, REPRODUCTION. 179 
until after they have produced either linear, very short sper- 
matia, or stylospores, the latter being reproductive bodies of an 
oblong shape, equal in size to the perfect sporidia. Some of 
the tubercles never pass beyond this stage. 
Again, there is a very common fungus which forms black dis- 
coid spots on dead holly leaves, called Ceuthospora phacidioides, 
figured by Greville in his “ Scottish Cryptogamic Flora,” which 
expels a profusion of minute stylospores; but later in the 
‘season, instead of these, we find the asci and sporidia of Phacv- 
dium ilicis, so that the two are forms and conditions the one of 
the other. 
In Zympanis conspersa the spermogonia are much more com- 
monly met with than the complete fruit. There is a great 
external resemblance in them to the ascigerous cups, but there 
is no evidence that they are ever transformed into such. The 
perfect sporidia are also very minute and numerous, being 
contained’ in asci borne in cups, which usually surround the 
spermogonia. 
In several species of Dermatea the stylospores and spermatia 
co-exist, but they are disseminated before the appearance of the 
ascigerous receptacles, yet they are produced upon a common 
stroma not unlike that of Tubercularia. 
In its early stage the common and well-known Bulgaria 
inquinans, which when mature looks like a black Peziza, is a 
little tubercle, the whole mass of which is divided into ramified 
lobes, the extremities of which become, towards the surface of 
the tubercle, receptacles from whence escape waves of sper- 
matia which are colourless, or stylospores mixed with them 
‘which are larger and nearly black. 
Amongst the Spheriacei numerous instances might be cited 
of minute stylosporous bodies in consort with, or preceding, 
the ascigerous receptacles. A very familiar example may be 
found at the base of old nettle stems in what has been named 
Apospheria acuta, but which truly are only the stylospores of 
the Spheria coniformis, the perithecia of which flourish in com- 
pany or in close proximity to them. Most of these bodies are 
so minute, delicate, and hyaline that the difficulties in the way 
