102 Rhodora [APRIL 
it appear to me that this genus, however interesting in itself, throws 
any important light on the at best dubious relationships which may 
be supposed to exist between the Oomycetous and Zygomycetous 
fungi. 
Few references to our species appear in the literature under its 
original name ; the description of Berkeley, and three notices of its 
occurrence in Peck’s Reports, being, as far as I am aware, the only 
ones which deal with it at first hand. In a note concerning it in my 
revision of Oedocephalum and Rhopalomyces above referred to, I 
suggested that it might prove a variety of A. elegans, basing this 
opinion on the notes and sketches kindly sent me by Mr. Massee 
who examined the type at Kew: and in a later paper Marchal 
(Revue Mycol. Vol. XVI, p. 11, Jan. 1893) has assumed that this is 
actually the case, since he includes it in his enumeration of the spe- 
cies of this genus under the name AZopa/omyces elegans, var. cucurbi- 
tarum. . ; 
In this connection it may be suggested that the conditions found 
in Choanephora render it not at all improbable that the species of 
Rhopalomyces, all of which have dark spores and highly differenti- 
ated sporophores rising from a mycelium of unseptate hyphae, may 
eventually find a place among the Zygomycetes, when their perfect 
condition is discovered. It is worthy of note, however, that the 
conidial spores differ markedly in the two genera, from the fact 
that while those of Choanephora germinate very readily and with 
great rapidity, those of Rhopalomyces can usually be induced to do 
so with very great difficulty if at all. 
The synonymy of our species may be appended as follows : 
Choanephora cucurbitarum (B. & Rav.) 
Rhopalomyces cucurbitarum, Berkeley and Ravenel, Grevillea, III, 
p. 11, 1875. 
Rhopalomyces elegans var. cucurbitarum Marchal, Revue Mycolo- 
gique XVI, p. 11, 1893. 
Aspergillus cucurbitaceus Curtis in Herb. 
to which may be added with a query,— 
Choanephora americana A. Moeller, Schimper’s Botan. Mittheil. a. d. 
Tropen. Heft 9, Phycomyceten u. Ascomyceten, p. 18, Plate I, figs. 
1-4. 
