Under the name of STYLOSPORES may be classed those spores which in some orders of _Coniomycetes_ are produced at the apex of short threads, either enclosed in a perithecium, or seated upon a kind of stroma. These are exceedingly variable, sometimes large, and multiseptate, at other times minute, resembling spermatia. In such genera as are chiefly epiphytal, in _Septoria_, _Phyllosticta_, and their allies, the minute spores are enclosed within membranaceous perithecia, and when mature these are ejected from the orifice at the apex, or are exposed by the breaking off of the upper portion of the perithecia. In _Diplodia_ and _Hendersonia_ the spores are larger, mostly coloured, often very fine in the latter genus, and multiseptate, escaping from the perithecia by a terminal pore. Probably the species are only pycnidia of _Sphæriacei_, but that is of no consequence in relation to our present inquiry. Of stylospores which deserve mention on account of their singularity of form, we may note those of _Dilophospora graminis_, which are straight, and have two or three hair-like appendages at each extremity. In _Discosia_ there is a single oblique bristle at each end, or at the side of the septate spores, whilst in _Neottiospora_ a tuft of delicate hairs is found at one extremity only. The appendages in _Dinemasporium_ are similar to those of _Discosia_. The spores in _Prosthemium_ may be said in some sort to resemble compound _Hendersonia_, being fusiform and multiseptate, often united at the base in a stellate manner. In this genus, as in _Darluca_, _Cytispora_, and the most of those belonging to the _Melanconiei_, the spores when mature are expelled from the orifice of the perithecium or spurious perithecium, either in the form of tendrils, or in a pasty mass. In these instances the spores are more or less involved in gelatine, and when expelled lie spread over the matrix, around the orifice; their ultimate diffusion being due to moisture washing them over other parts of the same tree, since it is probable that their natural area of dissemination is not large, the higher plants, of which they are mostly conditions, being developed on the same branches. More must be known of the relations between _Melanconium_ and Tulasne's sphæriaceous genus _Melanconis_ before we can appreciate entirely the advantage to _Melanconium_ and some other genera, that the wide diffusion of their spores should be checked by involving them in mucus, or their being agglutinated to the surface of the matrix, only to be softened and diffused by rain. The spores in many species amongst the _Melanconiei_ are remarkably fine; those of _Stegonosporium_ have the endochrome partite and cellular. In _Stilbospora_ and _Coryneum_ the spores are multiseptate, large, and mostly coloured. In _Asterosporium_ the spores are stellate, whilst in _Pestalozzia_ they are septate, with a permanent peduncle, and crested above with two or three hyaline appendages.