1903] Thaxter,— A New England Choanephora IOI 
It is no doubt owing to this caducous character of the ramuli, that 
C. cucurbitarum has been so long confused with Rhopalomyces. It 
has been noted by both Cunningham and Moeller that the fructifica- 
tions of these fungi usually mature very early in the morning, and 
the same is generally true of C. cucurbitarum. Any one collecting it 
in the field is thus likely to be misled as to its true characters; prep- 
arations of such material showing only masses of spores, associated 
with the persistent primary heads, the clathrate character of which is 
readily overlooked. 
I have never been able to obtain the sporangia of this species, 
although it has been cultivated in abundance, and subjected to such 
unfavorable conditions of nutrition as are said, in the other forms, to 
induce this type of fructification. In the absence of any knowledge 
of the sporangia the synonymy of the species must remain uncertain ; 
but, in so far as concerns the conidial fructification, it seems to T 
identical with the species described by Moeller as C. americana, 
unless the caducous character of the ramuli, which is not referred to! 
in his description, may prove to constitute a sufficient distinction. 
The habitat is the same, while the form and variations of the fructifi- 
cation are exactly similar; the spore measurements and shapes are 
identical, the exospore is of the same color and similarly striate, and 
the tongue-like remains of the attachment form a similar appendage 
in both. Yet the two cannot be certainly united until the identity 
of the sporangial spores can be determined. The latter are peculiar 
in this genus and, although they are contained in nodding sporangia 
which are very Mucor-like, are unique, in two of the species, from 
the fact that they are furnished with tufts of hair-like appendages 
which project from either end. 
The zygospores are known only in the two Indian species, which 
appear to produce them abundantly, and present no noteworthy 
peculiarities as compared with those of other mucors: and although 
the Peronospora-like parasitism of C. Simonsii on living leaves and 
shoots of Ipomoea, together with the lateral production of conidia 
which sometimes occurs, is certainly remarkable, it does not seem, 
in the absence of any indication even of heterogamy in the sexual 
reproduction, a sufficient reason for believing with Cunningham that 
the genus forms a stepping stone to the Peronosporeae. Nor does 
l Since the above was in press Dr. Moeller has informed me that he finds the 
conidial fructification of our species identical with that of C. americana. 
