_Hymenium more or less permanently concealed, consisting in most cases of closely-packed cells, of which the fertile ones bear naked spores on distinct spicules, exposed only by the rupture or decay of the investing coat or peridium_ = GASTEROMYCETES.
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--_Scleroderma vulgare_, Fr.]
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--_Ceuthospora phacidioides_ (Greville).]
We come now to the second section of the _Sporifera_, in which no definite hymenium is present. And here we find also two families, in one of which the dusty spores are the prominent feature, and hence termed _Coniomycetes_; the other, in which the threads are most noticeable, is _Hyphomycetes_. In the former of these, the reproductive system seems to preponderate so much over the vegetative, that the fungus appears to be all spores. The mycelium is often nearly obsolete, and the short pedicels so evanescent, that a rusty or sooty powder represents the mature fungus, infesting the green parts of living plants. This is more especially true of one or two orders. It will be most convenient to recognize two artificial sub-families for the purpose of illustration, 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 _Sphæronemei_, 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 _Sphæriacei_ of _Ascomycetous_ fungi, and probably consists largely of spermogonia of known species of _Sphæria_, 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.