INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 



327 



3. ToEULACEi, Corda. 



Mycelium filamentous or cellular, sparingly produced ; fer- 

 tile threads bearing erect moniliform chains of spores ; spores 

 formed by the deciduous joints, simple or articulate. 



352. The black weather-stains on wooden structures, and the 

 velvety or sometimes bristly spots which so often meet the 

 inquirer's eyes on stems of herbaceous plants, &c., are in great 

 part attributable to this group. They are Fungi in which 



Fig. 74. 



a. Sporoschisma mirdbile, Berk, and Br. Threads bursting above 

 and discharging the triseptate spores, with one of the Helminthospo- 

 roid threads and spores {Helminth, hacilliforme, Mont.), which always 

 accompany them. Magnified. 



b. Asciform threads of Bloxamia truncata, Berk, and Br., with a 

 single plant at the base surrounded by a delicate envelope and a single 

 spore above. 



c. Phragmotrichum Chailletii, thread and joint. From Massachusetts. 

 Magnified. 



there is no trace of any common perithecium, nor even of an 

 investing cuticle ; the fertUe threads are reduced in general to 

 a minimum, and the fruit composes far the greater part of the 

 plant. In many cases this fruit is simple, whether growing singly 

 or arranged in necklaces ; in many, again, whether single or con- 



