2 
A MONOGRAPH OF THE BRITISH HYPOMYCES. 
decay, generates the pabulum necessary for the nourishment and 
perfection of the higher form of fructificatian (ascigerous) of the 
Hypomyces , which is found in a stroma developed on the ground. 
The genus Hypomyces, however, is interesting, not only from its 
fungicolous habit, but also from the numerous phases of existence 
through which many of its members pass. In the highest condi- 
tion under which we meet with it, it is ascigerous, and belongs to 
the large order Sphceriacei, inasmuch as it has its sporidia inclosed 
in asci, and its asci enclosed in perforate perithecia. The perithecia 
are membranous, coloured often brightly, pierced at the apex by 
minute ostiola, and are, as a rule, seated upon a web of floccose 
mycelium, which is tolerably permanent, and has usually the same 
colour as the perithecia. The asci are, as a rule, octosporous, and 
take the form of an elongated cylinder. The sporidia are of two 
types, (1) either rather large, fusiform, normally uniseptate, and 
produced at either extremity into an acute point or pointed 
appendage ; or (2) they are small, oval, with blunt extremities, 
and, as a rule, uniseptate. 
The second form of fructification consists of Macroconidia or 
Chlamydospores. These are large spores having usually a thick, 
often echinulate or verrucose epispore, frequently globose, brightly 
coloured, and very abundant. 
The third form of fructification, the Microconidia or Conidia 
proper, are, on the contrary, small hyaline spores, often extremely 
abundant, born singly upon the tips of hyaline tubes, or conca- 
tenately. Many of them have been described as autonomous 
species of Mucedenes , under the genera Botrytis, Verticillium, 
Dactylium , &c. 
All three states of every Hypomyces have not as yet been 
observed, either in this country or elsewhere. As a rule, the 
ascigerous condition is the least frequently encountered, but this 
is by no means always the case ; perhaps, upon the whole, the 
microconidia are the most abundantly diffused. 
M. Tulasne mentions two species of Hypomyces , which have been 
found in this country, but which cannot, 1 think, be fairly included 
in this genus, as it is at present limited, viz. : — 
Hypomyces miliarius and H. tuberosus. Both these species have 
this in common, that they, while growing parasitically upon other 
fungi, develope sclerotia. They were both pointed out by M. 
Max Cornu at Hereford. 
Hypomyces miliarius, Tul. This species consists of a thin white 
layer of mycelium running over the gills, and sometimes other 
superficial parts of various Russules ( R . emetica , fattens, and 
adusta). From this mycelium are produced erect conidiophores, 
which bear abundant narrow ovate oblong conidia ‘OOT-'OIS mm. 
in length. Intermixed with the mycelium are innumerable small 
globose sclerotia. 
Tulasne, Sel. Carp. Fung., hi , p. 43, note. Saccardo, Mich., i., 
p. 287. 
