be more fully
appreciated, when the form of pseudospores, mode of germination, and
other features are taken into consideration, especially when compared with
_Podisoma Ellisii_, already alluded to. This family is technically
characterized as,--

_Distinct hymenium none. Pseudospores either solitary or concatenate,
produced on the tips of generally short threads, which are either
naked or contained in a perithecium, rarely compacted into a
gelatinous mass, at length producing minute spores_ = CONIOMYCETES.

The last family of the sporifera is _Hyphomycetes_, in which the
threads are conspicuously developed. These are what are more
commonly called "moulds," including some of the most elegant and
delicate of microscopic forms. It is true of many of these, as well
as of the _Coniomycetes_, that they are only conidial forms of
higher fungi; but there will remain a very large number of species
which, as far as present knowledge extends, must be accepted as
autonomous. In this family, we may again recognize three subdivisions,
in one of which the threads are more or less compacted into a common
stem, in another the threads are free, and in the third the threads
can scarcely be distinguished from the mycelium. It is this latter
group which unites the _Hyphomycetes_ with the _Coniomycetes_, the
affinities being increased by the great profusion with which the
spores are developed. The first group, in which the fertile threads
are united so as to form a compound stem, consists of two small
orders, the _Isariacei_ and the _Stilbacei_, in the former of which
the spores are dry, and in the latter somewhat gelatinous. Many of
the species closely imitate forms met with in the _Hymenomycetes_,
such as _Clavaria_; and, in the genus _Isaria_, it is almost beyond
doubt that the species found on dead insects, moths, spiders,
flies, ants, &c., are merely the conidiophores of species of
_Torrubia_.[O]

The second group is by far the largest, most typical, and attractive
in this family. It contains the black moulds and white moulds,
technically known as the _Dematiei_ and the _Mucedines_. In the first,
the threads are more or less corticated, that is, the stem has a
distinct investing membrane, which peels off like a bark; and the
threads, often also the spores, are dark-coloured, as if charred or
scorched. In many cases, the spores are highly developed, large,
multiseptate, and nucleate, and seldom are spores and threads
colourless or of