Sketch of the Class Fungi. 



233 



18 observed in Hypocrea ophioglossoides [and Per isporium vulgare], is 

 found again in Antennaria, which has no asci. They are generally 

 four or eight in each ascus ; in* Hypocrea Robertsii and phyllogena, 

 nob., they are much more numerous. 



M. Corda (Ic. Fung., ii. p. 27. t. 13. f. 97. 21, 22.) relates a cu- 

 rious fact regarding the germination in this family. He says that he 

 has seen in Perisporium vulgare that it does not consist, as in other 

 cellular plants, in a simple elongation of one of the two poles of the 

 episporium, but that this, after the fashion of the seeds of higher 

 plants, bursts to make way for the primordial filament. If there is 

 no optical deception, and this observation is confirmed, it is certainly 

 one of great interest. 



I cannot better end my general remarks on this family than by 

 quoting a passage from Fries, Syst. Myc, ii. p. 315 : — " Ubique ter- 

 rarum ubi adest vegetatio, simul adsunt Pyrenomycetes, ut vix alia ex- 

 istat stirpium familia frequentior obvia, cum omnis stirps perfectior, 

 omnesque partes morientes, Pyrenomycetes alant" The bark, wood, 

 stems and leaves of herbaceous plants, the leaves of trees, the dung 

 of animals, are the matrix (in other respects useless to man) on which 

 they love to grow. Some species grow on dead animals ; chiefly on 

 caterpillars (Hypocrea Robertsii and entomorrhizaf) . Some grow 

 on other fungi (e. g. Hypocrea ophioglossoides and capitata). 



On one side the Pyrenomycetes are closely allied to Discomycetes by 

 their fructification, equally with which their vegetation is centripetal ; 

 on the other in the form of their perithecium with certain Lichens, 

 as Verrucarite and Trypteheliacea ; but they differ essentially from 

 the first by the character which brings them near to the second, and 

 from these by the absence of all trace of thallus. 



Fries established two grand divisions in this family, Sphceriacece 

 characterized by elongated asci (asci perfecti), and Perisporiacece 

 which have the sporidia naked or enclosed in little pouches (peri- 

 diola). The Sphceriacea are divided into, 1. Sphcerice, whose peri- 

 thecia have a prominent ostiolum ; 2. Dothiorm, in which there is 

 only a simple pore ; 3. Dichenece, in which dehiscence takes place by 

 one or more clefts, or by an orbicular dilatation. The Perisporiacece 

 are subdivided in the same manner : 1. Perisporia, with an ostiolate 

 perithecium ; 2. Apiosporece, in which it opens irregularly or bursts ; 

 3. Cytisporeoe, in which there is no true perithecium, or if there be, it 

 is concealed in the matrix. 



Discomycetes, Fr. 



This family, recently established by Fries (Fl. Scan., p. 341) at 

 the expense of the Hymenomycetes with a closed receptacle, and of 

 Pyrenomycetes with an expanded or disc-bearing receptacle, is cha- 

 racterized by a sort of hymenium, at first nucleiform, then expanded 



* And 1 believe generally in Hypocrea, which I conceive to be the grand 

 distinctive mark. — M.J. B. 



f The famous " guepes vegetantes " are living wasps attacked I believe 

 by a species of Hypocrea. The specimens which I have had an opportunity 

 of examining were not quite mature. — M. J. B. 



Ann. §• Mag. N. Hist. Vol.ix. R 



