564 THE SMALLER FUNGI. 
rapid growth. of. intricate: fibres, every surrounding object, 
revealing in the smallest bit. of itself the forked branches and 
spores of a species of Peronospora with its two-formed fruit, 
any single one of which falling on the. living tissue of moss 
germinated and bore fruit in turn! A few hours dampness 
and. heat. will develope the Botrytis and load its slender 
stalks with grape-like bunches of seed-bearing cells. 
With an. intention to introduce these little parasitical 
growths to the attention of the reading and thinking : public, 
to such as would readily attend lectures illustrating such 
topics, and to make plain and easy, what at first seems $0 
obscure and mysterious, the author commences. by bringing 
forward some of the species most common in England, and 
explaining by words and by figures their form, structure and 
occurrence... We have only to change the words a little 
and designate the fields close to, any large town or city of 
the United. States, or at least of New England, to find the 
same or similar living plants, whose foliage or other parts of 
them are infested with the same species or with kinds closely 
allied. j ; ; 
. “Amongst the six families into which fungi are divided, T 
one, in: which. the spores are the principal feature. This 
family is named Coniomycetes, from two Greek words mean- 
ing. ‘dust fungi,’ . This family. includes. several melt 
groups, termed :orders, which are analogous to the natura 
orders of flowering plants, Without staying to enumerate 
the characteristics of these orders, we select one in which m 
spores are enclosed ina distinct peridium,* as in our typ! 
This. order is the Aicidiacei, so-called after caer 
largest and most important of the genera included W! 
this order. . The Aicidiacei are always developed on pen 
plants, sometimes on the flowers, fruit, leaf-stalks, the app 
e ‘ 
but most. commonly on the leaves, occasionally on 
surface,.but generally on the inferior. The different SP 
* Peridium, the covering of the seeds of fungi. 

