Fitzpatrick: Monograph of Coryneliaceae 213 



The incorporation of the Coryneliaceae in the Perisporiales 

 will necessitate some widening of the limits of this order, but this 

 is probably at present the most logical disposition of the group. 

 Since all the species lack aerial mycelium and bear their perithecia 

 and pycnidia on an erumpent stroma, they differ essentially from 

 the Perisporiaceae and clearly comprise a separate family. When 

 the forms included by Lindau in the Perisporiaceae are more 

 critically studied and the method of dehiscence in all of them is 

 clearly understood, it is probable that the line of separation be- 

 tween the two families can be drawn with greater definiteness 

 than at present. 



Inter-Relationships of the Species within the Family 



A comparative study of the various species in the family has 

 led to some interesting conclusions concerning the phyllogeny of 

 the group as a whole. It has also made clear the general line of 

 development of the more highly specialized species from the lower 

 more generalized ones. The accompanying chart gives in detail 

 the writer's conception of the evolution of these forms. 



Certain characters of the ancestral stock from which the Cory- 

 neliaceae of the present arose are easy to surmise. These ances- 

 tral forms evidently resembled in many respects the fungi now 

 included in Capnodvum. They had acquired, however, a pro- 

 nounced tendency toward the parasitic habit, possessed internal 

 rather than aerial mycelium, and bore their perithecia in a cespi- 

 tose cluster on a definite erumpent stroma.. We may assume also 

 that the perithecium was elongated in form, probably definitely 

 stalked, and that dehiscence was apical and of the type termed 

 fimbriate-lacerate. The perithecium was further characterized 

 by the absence of paraphyses and by the production of broadly 

 ovoidal, long-stipitate, 8-spored asci with unicellular, spherical to 

 oval spores. The species of Caliciopsis regarded by the writer 

 as the most primitive members of the group now extant, have 

 departed from this type relatively little. Other members of the 

 family apparently somewhat less primitive in , type are Sorica 

 maxima, Tripospora tripos, and Corynclia fructicola. These 

 species have resulted from development along very different lines. 



