CONIOMYCETES AND HYPHOMYCETES.

In the original classification of Fries two of the primary divisions of the sporiferous Fungi were termed, respectively, Coniomycetes and Hyphomycetes. This arrangement was accepted by Berkeley, the term Coniomycetes being applied to all fungi in which the naked spores, appearing like an impalpable dust, were the principal feature of the plant, and the term Hyphomycetes to fungi in which the threads or hyphæ bearing the spores were the most conspicuous feature.

Coniomycetes, as broadly interpreted by Berkeley and other mycologists of his day, included the Uredineæ or "rust fungi," the Ustilagines or "smut fungi," the Sphæropsideæ, and the Melanconieæ. This arrangement was very unsatisfactory on account of the distinctively different character of the methods of reproduction of the respective groups, and they have since been disassociated and by some authors ranked as distinct orders or families. Others combine Uredinei and Ustilaginei in one group under the name Hypodermei.

Familiar examples of Uredinei are seen in the rust of the Barberry leaf, etc., and of the Ustilaginei in the "smut" of corn and the "bunt" of wheat.

Some authors combine the Sphæropsideæ with the closely allied Melanconieæ. M. C. Cooke contends that the Sphæropsideæ should be considered apart from the Melanconieæ, on the fundamental basis that the former possess a distinct perithecium, while the latter do not.

The Sphæropsideæ as recently defined by Cooke are "Fungi possessed of a perithecium, but without asci, ... sporules or stylospores being produced internally at the apex of more or less distinct supporting hyphæ or pedicels, termed sporophores."

The Sphæropsideæ somewhat resemble the Pyrenomyceteæ in external characteristics, but differ from them in the absence of asci and paraphyses. Saccardo retains all the species in his Sylloge, but relegates them to an inferior position as imperfect fungi.

The group Pyrenomycetes, or Sphæriacei, as at first recognized by Fries, included not only the Sphæriacei and the Perisporacei, but also the Sphæropsidei and Melanconiaceæ. Later, when ascigerous fungi were separated from stylosporous fungi, this group was revised, the ascigerous species only being retained. As at present limited, the Pyrenomycetes are "ascigerous fungi having the fructification enclosed within a perithecium."

They constitute a very large group, the described species, according to Cooke's Census of Fungi, numbering not less than 10,500, or at least 1,000 more than all the recorded species of Hymenomycetes. The plants are microscopic in size, and grow upon vegetable or animal substances.