ustration, in one of which the species are developed
on living, and in the other on dead, plants. We will commence with the
latter, recognizing first those which are developed beneath the
cuticle, and then those which are superficial. Of the sub-cuticular,
two orders may be named as the representatives of this group in
Britain, these are the _Sphaeronemei_, in which the spores are contained
in a more or less perfect perithecium, and the _Melanconiei_, in which
there is manifestly none. The first of these is analogous to the
_Sphaeriacei_ of _Ascomycetous_ fungi, and probably consists largely of
spermogonia of known species of _Sphaeria_, the relations of which have
not hitherto been traced. The spores are produced on slender threads
springing from the inner wall of the perithecium, and, when mature, are
expelled from an orifice at the apex. This is the normal condition, to
which there are some exceptions. In the _Melanconiei_, there is no
true perithecium, but the spores are produced in like manner upon a kind
of stroma or cushion formed from the mycelium, and, when mature, are
expelled through a rupture of the cuticle beneath which they are
generated, often issuing in long gelatinous tendrils. Here, again,
the majority of what were formerly regarded as distinct species have
been found, or suspected, to be forms of higher fungi. The _Torulacei_
represent the superficial fungi of this family, and these consist of a
more or less developed mycelium, which gives rise to fertile threads,
which, by constriction and division, mature into moniliform chains
of spores. The species mostly appear as blackish velvety patches or
stains on the stems of herbaceous plants and on old weathered wood.

Much interest attaches to the other sub-family of _Coniomycetes_, in which
the species are produced for the most part on living plants. So much
has been discovered during recent years of the polymorphism which
subsists amongst the species in this section, that any detailed
classification can only be regarded as provisional. Hence we shall
proceed here upon the supposition that we are dealing with autonomous
species. In the first place, we must recognize a small section in which
a kind of cellular peridium is present. This is the _AEcidiacei_, or order
of "cluster cups." The majority of species are very beautiful objects
under the microscope; the peridia are distinctly cellular, and white or
pallid, produced beneath the cuticle, through which