296 INTRODUCTION TO CETPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



served by myself in Endodromia* and in Pilobolus, Ehren- 

 berg and Muller Lave recorded a curious motion in the dew 

 drops, with which the species are so often studded, without, 

 however, giving any satisfactory account of the nature of the 

 moving body. 



1. MUCOEINI, Ft. 



312. When Antennaria is removed, and the two imper- 

 fectly known genera, Pleuropyxis and Pisomyosa, there 

 remains only the group of true moulds, than which nothing 

 can be a more natural assemblage. Most of their peculiarities 

 have already been mentioned. Phycomyces is one of the most 

 remarkable for its size and rapid development. It grows on 

 walls saturated with oil, or upon grease, where it occurs in 

 prodigious quantities. It is, in fact, an exaggerated form of 

 MucoT, remarkable for the green colour and shining aspect of 

 the stem when dry, which seem at first to indicate affinity 

 rather with Algse than Fungi, as indeed the name impUes. 

 This genus has, moreover, not the slightest affinity to Stilhum,, 

 with which it was long improperly associated. 



813. Some species of Ascophora bear two distinct kinds of 

 fruit on the same stem. This is the case with Ascophora 

 elegans, one of the most beautiful of Fungi, a portion of which 

 is represented (Fig. 67, d). Not only are the two kinds of 

 vesicles different, but also the contained sporidia. Pilobolus 

 is remarkable for the inflated stem, on which the fruitbearing 

 vesicle is seated like a gem in a die. The eggs of Hemerobia 

 are at first sight extremely like a Mucor, and are figured as 

 a mould by more than one Botanist. 



III. Hyphomtcetes, Fr. 



Spores naked, growing upon the fertile threads, simple or 

 compound. Threads white, dark brown, or coloured, very 

 rarely so compacted as to present anything like an hymenium. 



314. It was stated that there are two main types of fruc- 

 tification, the sporophorous and the ascigerous, characterising 



* Berk, in Hook. Journ., vol. iii., p. 78. Kze. Myc. Hefte., ii., p. 67. 

 I have seen exactly the same motion in little cells in the endochrome 

 of Brocoli, affected with the disease called clubbing. A figure wUl be 

 found in Gard. Chron., p. 500, 1856. 



