RErRODUCTION OF THE ASCOMYCETES. 
53 
astero2')liorvs. There is, therefore, a veritable consangninity be- 
tween all these forms appertaining to some species born in conditions 
so different and distinct from each other ; but one cannot avoid 
remarking that there is a general resemblance which unites them. 
In Erysi2)lie the conidiiferous apparatus (simplified and reduced 
to a single branch) is still allied to these. The spores are borne 
likewise in rows, and fall in a measure as they are ripe; they form 
some more or less lengthened chaplets, according to external cir- 
cumstances. 
From the exact appreciation of the different forms would result 
perhaps a more easy ropprochement of the species. From the 
comparison of the organs of the same value — perithecia, pycnidia, 
spermogonia (this last word employed in a modified sense) — there 
certainly would result a more perfect knowledge of the affinities of 
the different plants. 
It is certain that the classing, according to the importance of the 
stroma only, is artificial, like all classifications founded upon a 
single characteristic, and many Ascomycetes with isolated con- 
ceptacles might be joined to Hypoxylon without destroying, by 
so doing, their natural analogies. Certain very clearly defined 
genera are defined by other characters than their stroma. One 
might thus join together Stictospliceria Hoffmanni^ Tub, not 
with Hypoxylon, but with Valsa, with whicli it has much more 
analogy; it is likewise the case with many fimicolous species. 
According to these considerations the idea of the genus founded 
partly on the external form and value of the stroma will be pro- 
foundly modified. 
It is necessary to take into consideration, principally in the case 
w'here they are represented by separate cavities, the comparison of 
the different modes of reproduction in perhaps an equal degree ; 
but this estimate of the analogies ought to be preceded by a pre- 
liminary work. It would be necessary to establish what are, in 
each species, the reproductive bodies corresponding to the stylo- 
spores and those which one would call spermatia. It would above 
all be necessary in the case where the species want one of these 
forms ; may be that they really are deprived ; may be, on the con- 
trary, that the plant may be incompletely studied. Thus, for 
example, the homology of the three modes of reproduction of 
Hypomyces is exceedingly clear, but one conceives that if among 
one of the species the conidia, among another the stylospores, 
were not known, it would be singular and contrary to all natural 
laws to attempt to establish any comparison whatever between the 
conidia on the one side and the stylospores on the other; whilst, 
on the contrary, an attentive comparison with a third species 
furnished with both sorts of spores, would permit a natural lien 
to be established between these two species by the intermission of 
a third. 
Similar studies would find, therefore, their application in the 
grouping of different forms, and supported by some analogous 
