MONOGRAPH OF THE LABOULREXIACF.yK. 



199 



and the modifications which they present are so singular that the members of the 

 group may well rank among the most remarkable of vegetable productions. 



It is not to their variety and eccentricity of form, however, that they owe their 

 special claim to interest and importance among plants in general and fungi in particu- 

 lar; but to the fact that, associated with their comparatively simple vegetative 

 development, they present sexual phenomena the complicated nature of which would 

 indicate that they occupy a position among the highest members of their class. It is 

 hardly necessary to remark that any fresh evidence in this connection has a special 

 interest at the present time; since, as a result of the views so strenuously maintained 

 by Professor Brefeld and his school, the existence of sexuality of any type among the 

 higher fungi, has become, to say the least, discredited by a majority of the mycologists 

 of the present day. If we are to admit nevertheless, as seems quite unavoidable, 

 that the Laboulbeniacea* arc fungi, and also, as seems equally unavoidable, that they 

 are ascomycetous fungi in the strict sense of the term, it must also be admitted that 

 the} r demonstrate the sexual origin of the ascus beyond any reasonable doubt. How- 

 ever views may differ as to the true phyllogeny of the group as a whole, the most de- 

 vout disciple of the so-called " school " of De Bary could hardly have devised a series 

 of forms better adapted than the present family to confirm his general conclusions. 

 Despite this fact, one looks, as a rule, in vain for even a reference to the Laboulbeniacese 

 in the host of text-books which have made their appearance within the past few years, 

 while in the works of Professor Brefeld, so far as I have been able to ascertain, they 

 are not even mentioned by name. 



Further discussion of these matters may well be deferred, however, until the 

 morphology of the more important genera has been considered, and with this brief 

 note and general affirmation of my own views in regard to the vexed question of sex- 

 uality among the ascomycetes, we may turn at once to consider the family in detail. 



Historical. In reviewing the literature relating; to the Laboulbeniaceoe it will 

 be noted that, although the list of titles is not a short one, a considerable number have 

 reference either to brief notes or to articles which deal at second hand with previously 

 published data, while the original contributions are comparatively few. A complete 

 list of references, so far as I have been able to obtain them, will be found appended ; 

 but in briefly tracing the history of the family in so far as its literature is concerned, 

 1 shall omit reference to such articles as are not in the nature of contributions to a 

 knowledge of the group. 



This knowledge may be said to have originated with the publication by Robin of 



