By C. E. Broome, Esq. 



177 



This mode of fructification is called acrosporous, and is met with 

 amongst the more highly developed Fungi, as in Agaricus. In 

 the other case, the tips of the threads of the fructifying surface 

 enlarge themselves, and form tubes or bags, in which a grumous 

 mass soon appears, this is quickly resolved into a mass of sporidia, 

 whose numbers are either definite, or indefinite : in the former case 

 being generally two, or a multiple of two. This mode of fruiting 

 is termed Ascigerous, and in this case the sporidia are often divided 

 by dissepiments into several cells, from each of which a mycelioid 

 thread may be produced. 



These two modes of fruit formation, viz., the acrosporous and 

 ascigerous, afford a useful character for forming two grand series. 

 But there is another way in which Fungi may be reproduced., 

 which is by cells developed at the tips of threads, as in the first 

 case, but which are much more irregular in form, &c, than true 

 spores. Fries has named these bodies conidia. Most Fungi 

 produce them in an early stage of their existence, and in that stage 

 they are easily mistaken for other very distinct genera. Hypoxylon 

 vulgare for instance, in an earl} 7 state, resembles a Clavaria, its tip 

 is then covered with a stratum of conidia, forming a white powder, 

 so that it is a perplexing subject for a beginner to try his hand on : 

 when mature, some months afterwards, it is clothed with a number 

 of perithecia, towards the summit, sunk in the flesh, containing 

 sporidia in asci. Again Hypoxylon deustum, in its youth, clothed 

 with conidia, might pass for a Thelephora, if we were not acquainted 

 with its subsequent history. 



Besides conidia other bodies have been observed, which are 

 incapable of germination, but are produced in perithecia, &c, they 

 are supposed to perform the office of pollen in the flowering plants. 

 An instance is afforded in a species of Sphaeria occurring on dead 

 holly boughs, which has been named Nectria inaurata. The 

 perithecia in this case produce two forms of fruit in their asci, in 

 the same perithecium, in one there are eight normal sporidia in each 

 ascus, in the other, the asci are crammed with a multitude of 

 minute, ovate bodies, endowed with a peculiar motion when placed 

 in water, called molecular. In Erysiphe, we find sporangia 



