CANKER GROWTH ON ABIES BALSAMEA 25 
characters, to those of the Helotiaceae, so well described and fig- 
ured by Durand,* and to the genus Dasyscypha. 
The asci are small, cylindrical and slightly club-shaped, taper- 
ing at the base, and becoming broader towards the rounded apex. 
They vary in size from 2.5x20 to 4x30 y. The ascus wall is 
extremely hyaline and difficult to find and measure. It can 
usually be made out, however, in thin sections, from the position of 
the spores which lie eight in a row, appearing as if the ascus wall 
had dissolved away, leaving the spores in their position (jig. 5). 
The spores are elliptical and extremely small. They vary 
somewhat in size, the lower ones of the ascus being smaller than 
the ones nearer the apex. Measurements of spores in several asci 
gave the following: 1.66 x 2.5 mw, 1.95 x 2.6 4, 2.07 X 3.04, 
2.29 X 3.07 f4, 2.49 X 3.5 #. 
The paraphyses are cylindrical, tapering slightly at the base 
and are rounded at the tip; otherwise they are of the same 
diameter throughout. They are about one and one-half to two 
times as long as the asci, and vary in diameter from 0.8 to I.5 4. 
The asci and paraphyses are free at their ends, there being no 
epithecium present. 
The hypothecium consists of a thin layer of closely inter- 
woven and extremely slender hyphae, which are made out with 
difficulty. 
The excipulum (peridium) is made up of two not clearly dif- 
ferentiated portions, the medullary and the extal. The medullary 
consists of more loosely interwoven, colorless hyphae, which run 
in all directions, filling up the upper central portion of the stipe and 
forming a thin layer below the hypothecium. The extal layer of 
the excipulum consists of longer, thick-walled and closely inter- 
woven hyphae, which are more regular in their course, running 
almost parallel with each other and with the surface of the ascoma. 
Some of the extal layer hyphae change their course or become 
Separated from the other and project from the surface of the 
ascoma, forming the so-called hairs or pili. These pili or project- 
ing hyphae have a greater diameter (3 to 4/4) than any of the extal 
* Durand, Elias J., The classification of the Fleshy Pezizineae with Reference to 
the Structural Characters illustrating the Bases of their Division into Families. Bull. 
Torrey Club, 27 : 481. Igoo. 
