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 pTiacidioides, 

 figured by Greville in his " Scottish Cryptogamic Mora," which 

 expels a profusion of minute stylospores ; but later in the 

 season, instead of these, we find the asci and sporidia of Pliaci- 

 dium ilicis, so that the two are forms and conditions the one of 

 the other. 



In Tympanis 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 Sphmriaoei 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 

 Aposphmria acuta, but which truly are only the stylospores of 

 the Sphmria 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 



