Griffiths : Pykenomycetes 437 



loth of March, 1899, these stems were placed m a moist chamber 

 under conditions similar to those described above {orPoaNcvadctisis. 

 Mature perithecia of this species were first observed on April 7th. 

 Subsequent cultures from the same material show the perithecia 

 to develop in about three weeks. It appears to thrive best in an 

 abundance of moisture. I have succeeded in getting the best 

 growth of it when the herbage was not only thoroughly moist but 

 when the chamber in which they were placed had waiter standing in 

 the bottom of it. This species has also been cultivated in small 

 quantity on dead scapes and leaves of Allium from the Big Horn 

 Mountains of Wyoming, treated in the same way. 



■ 



SORDARIA CUKVICOLLA Wint. 



I 



Perithecia scattered, semi-immersed, pyriform, thin, mem- 

 branaceous, about 600 ft in diameter, outline of asci plainly dis- 

 tinguishable by transmitted light, the conical truncate black apex 

 clothed with short, delicate, simple, brown hairs, asci broadly cla- 

 vatc, polysporous with few evanescent paraphyses, 100-120 /^x 

 2^70-300 /i: spores oval, 10-11X14-1S /^, olivaceous to dark 

 and opaque with a hyaline appendage at the lower end about 

 2^ the length of the spore. PL j6j.f. 13-15^ \ 



This species developed on Salsola kali tragus with Sordaria 

 ainmla, but I found none of it for about fiv^e weeks after the cul- 

 ture w^as started. 



This differs from European specimens principally in the larger 

 number of spores and their occasionally darkened apiculi. The 

 latter is not invariable in my specimens and I apprehend that 

 the former may be very variable in the species. Dr. Winter, after 

 isolating an ascus in one of his specimens and rupturing it, counted 

 ■128 spores, but my specimens contain as many as 150 spores^ a 

 variation which I consider of minor importance. In other respects 

 my specimens correspond very well with European specimens 

 In Krieger's Fungi Saxonici, no. 33, as they do also with Dr. 

 Winter's descriptions and figures. 



I would not be surprised to know that this and the two pre- 

 viously described species are very common in this countr}' although 

 they have not been recorded before so far as I am aware. They 

 are very liable to be overlooked by the collector. Indeed, it is 

 with difficulty that I am able to find the perithecia in my cultures 

 after they have become dry, although they are very numerous. 



