312 INTRODUCTION TO CKTPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



332. We have hitherto considered those moulds which 

 possess fertile threads consisting of a single cell, or a single row 

 of articulations. We have, however, shown that GoremiuTn, 

 whose stem consists of a compact mass of threads, is merely a 

 concrete Penidllium. We come now to those Hyphomycetes 

 in which the stem is either essentially compoimd, whether 

 consisting merely of an agglomeration of threads, or of threads 

 so closely compacted that the filamentous structure is no longer 

 visible, and replaced by cells, still possessing, however, for the 

 most part, a strictly longitudinal direction, though in some 

 cases, as in Epicoccum, there is no such disposition. This 

 genus is, however, very anomalous, and is remarkable for its 

 large, often compound and granulated spores, which depart 

 from the normal character of the tribe.* 



833. In some cases, as in Volutella, the short compact base, 

 which produces a little bed of spores much after the manner 

 of an Helotium, except that they are naked instead of being 

 contained in asci, is surrounded by a delicate fringe of hyaline 

 bristles. In Stilbum and Oorallodendron, we have a first 

 approach in perfect Fungi to Hymenomycetous forms, which 

 were, however, shadowed out beforehand by the spurious genus 

 Tubercularia, from some forms of which particular species of 

 Stilbum are scarcely distinguishable, or still more faintly as 

 an analogue in Aspergillus. The species assume brilliant 

 colours, and under the form of Stilbum lateritium, and S. 

 cinnabarrinum are pretty generally distributed in warmer dis- 

 tricts. If the stem of such species be reduced to a mere plane 

 or a little pulvinate point, we have at once such genera as 

 Fusarium ; and if Giliciopodium be compared with Vohi- 

 tella, we see at once the propriety of such a notion, for the 

 former is nothing more than a stipitate Volutella. Some 

 species of Stilbum originate in the inner substance of the bark, 

 bursting ultimately through the external strata. With the 

 exception of Stilbum and Oorallodendron, the genera all 



» The mycelium of this genus is often of a deep blood red, causing 

 lilood-staius on linen, fruit, and other substances. I have a curious 

 equally abnormal North American genus Cheiromyces, Berk, and Curt., 

 which on a cellular base bears digitate spores (Fig, 70, c). 



