90 



scarcely any two liad any particular resemblance to each other. If 

 a child had taken scissors and cut out the leaves, snipping out 

 notclies here, and leaving prolonged points there, while abruptly 

 snipping them off in still other places, no queerer shapes could be 

 found. They are grotesque and misshapen ; not one can be called 

 " pretty " (though the texture of the frond is daintily thin), and the 

 fruiting-spikes always vaguely remind me of rattlesnakes and their 

 rattles. Fronds simple and ovate, lanceolate or broadly wedge- 

 shaped ; or two-lobed, one lobe twice as long as the other, and both 

 knocked over on one side at right angles to the stem ; or three, four 

 or five-lobed with short upper lobes and a much-pulled-out lateral 

 lobe ; obtuse, acute, scalloped, square or emarginate tips ; the variety 

 is endless. The fruiting-spikes vary in number, some of the smallest 

 fronds only an inch or two long, stem and all, and less than an inch 

 wide, bearing three or four ; while larger ones, with stem three or four 

 mches long and blade two inches long by same breadth, can scarcely 

 perfect one good spike. 



St. Augustine, Fla. Mary C. Reynolds. 



66. A New Sphaeria on Grapes.— In the early part of the pres- 

 ent month (May, 1880) my friend, Dr. E. C. Bidwell, of Vineland, 

 N. J., wrote me that he had found the ascigerous form of the 

 fungus to which Phoma uvicola belongs. The grapes on which the 

 fungus m question was found had been struck with the rot last sea- 

 son, and were still hanging dry and shrivelled on the vines and well 

 covered, with the Phoma. Dr. B., who has for some years past been 

 investigating the grape-vme fungi, placed for the purpose of experi- 

 ment some of these shrivelled grapes in water where they were allo'wed 

 to soak for three or four days. At the expiration of this time many 

 ot the penthecia (which before contained only spores of the PJwma) 

 were now filled with well-developed asci, in which the sporidia were 

 not yet fully matured. Having read the account of Dr. B.'s discov- 

 ery, I at once examined the grape-vines inmv own vicinity, and found 

 lying cfn the ground under the grape trellis a few shrivelled grapes 

 which afforded some ascigerous perithecia, together with an abun- 

 dance oi Phoma. These grapes, perhaps from the fact of their 

 having lam on the ground where they had imbibed a greater amount 

 ot moisture, were in a more advanced stage of development than 

 those hanging on the vines. 



The fungus in question is a Sphaeria of the section Suhtectae, Fr , 

 and in honor of its discoverer is here proposed as ' 



Sphaeria Bidwellii., n. sp., briefly characterized as follows • S 

 perithecus minutis globosis epidermidi tectis demum suberumpenti- 

 bus, apice poro pertusis ; ascis clavate-cylindraceis obtusis 0027'x 

 .0005, sporidias, octo irregulariter ellipticas vel oblongas (continuas ?) 

 .0005 - 0007 x.oooi5'-.ooo2' foventibus ; paraphysibus nullis 



The specimens thus far examined appear not to be fully maturei 

 tne sporidia bemg filled with granular matter and a few oil ^lobules 

 so that their ultimate shape cannot now be perfectly defined^ There 

 appears to be quite a variation in their form, from regularly elliptical 



