Griffiths : Pvrexomvcetfs 433 



tions. I know from experience that it is difficult for the young 

 student to form a clear conception of how the asci and spores look 

 within the perithccium although he actually sees them escape from 

 it when it ruptures under the cov^er glass. With a good condenser 

 one can make out the shape of the asci in these species quite well 

 without rupturing the perithecium at all. This is especially true 

 of such a polysporous form as S. curvicolla. I have In several in- 

 stances been able to secure the perithecia of this species, before 

 they w^ere yet mature, showing one or two large asci protruding 

 above the other younger ones, and having mature spores, while 



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the others had only very young and imperfectly outlined ones 

 within them. As the younger asci develop, the older ones rup- 

 ture, and their spores escape through the ostiolum, forming a 



black globule on the top of the perithecium. This is also true, to 

 a less degree, of the two species o^ Melanospora, 



Melanospora Poae sp. nov. 



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Perithecia scattered or gregarious, superficial, thin, membran- 

 ous, white turning to black and opaque, prolonged above into 

 a curved or twisted beak once to twice the length of the perithe- 

 cium, covered with long dehcate flexuous sparingly septate hairs, 

 140-180// X 500-600/7 : asci broadly clavate, short stipitate, evan- 

 escent, without paraphyses, 10-13/^x26-30//: spores very vari- 

 able, oblong or cuboidal with an apical grove and often flattened 

 parallel to it, 4.5-5 ft x 5.5-6.5 //. PL 336,/. 24-26, 



This species has been cultivated on dead culms and leaves of 



Poa Nevadcnsis collected in the Big Horn Mts., near Buffalo, 



Wyo., Aug., 1 898 (Williams and Griffiths). The culms and 



^^ r 



leaves were thoroughly moistened and placed in a moist chamber 

 on the 14th of March. Mature perithecia were found on the 29th 



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of the same month — a remarkably short time for the develop- 

 ment of this class of fungi. In order to make certain that the 



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perithecia were not already partly developed before the material 



h I 



was placed in the moist chamber, two other cultures were made in 

 April. This time the material was carefully examined, moistened 



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and placed on sterilized filter paper in a Petri dish. Quite a growth 



^ ' I 



of mycelium extended from the culms and leaves over the paper, 

 and the perithecia were again developed entirely distinct from the 

 dead herbage. In neither culture have I been able to find conidia. 



