Family 1. CHAETOMIACEAE 
By HELEN LETITIA PALLISER 
Perithecia superficial, free or adnate, generally seated on a superficial 
mycelium, scattered or gregarious, thin and membranaceous, pale-brown to 
black, usually with an ostiolum at the apex, thickly clothed with hairs; basal 
hairs functioning as rhizoids ; apical hairs usually longer and coarser, branched 
or simple, forming a tuft above the perithecia. Asciclavate, evanescent, seldom 
visiblein a mature specimen. Paraphysesevanescent. Spores simple, ellipsoid 
or ovoid to subglobose, more or less compressed, usually more or less apicu- 
late on the ends, with acup-like depression on one side which causes them to 
appear spindle-shaped or narrowly ellipsoid in profile. Species all saprophytic, 
infesting a firm rather moist substratum, such as decaying parts of plants or 
dung of animals. 
1. CHAETOMIUM Kunze & Schmidt, Myk. Hefte 1: 15. 1817. 
Ascotricha Berk. Ann. Nat, Hist. 1: 257. 1838. 
Perithecia superficial, thin-membranaceous, with an apical tuft of hair or bristles and 
usually with an ostiolum; asci club-shaped, evanescent; spores simple, hyaline to dark- 
brown, more or less compressed. 
Type species, Chaetomium globosum Kunze. 
Apical hairs all simple. 
Hairs straight and bristle-like. 1. C. abielinum, 
Hairs flexuous. 
Hairs circinate or subcircinate. 
Hairs circinate and not swollen at the base. 2. C. murorum, 
Hairs subcircinate and swollen at the base. 3. C. caninum. 
Hairs not circinate. 
Hairs comparatively few, short (300 # long). 4. C. lanosum. 
Hairs numerous, comparatively long (500-1000 #4). 
Hairs 500-700 u long, olivaceous. 5. C. olivaceum, 
Hairs 700-1000 # long, dark-brown. 6. C. Ellisianum. 
Hairs irregularly contorted into 6-8 loops, alternate loops being in ; 
opposite directions. : 7. C. crispatum, 
Hairs more or less spirally coiled. _ 
Hairs irregularly and spirally twisted at the end. 
Hairs flexuous at the base, usually smooth. 8. C. cochliodes. 
Hairs straight at the base, incrusted. 9. C. spirochaete. 
Hairs more or less regularly coiled at the end. 
Hairs in 1-2 loose spirals, dark-brown. 10. C. flexuosum. 
Hairs in 5-6 spirals, pale-brown. 11. C. bosirychodes. 
Hairs in 15-20 spirals. 12. Claterrimum. 
Apical hairs allor partly branched. 
Hairs all branched. © : 
Hairs more or less deeply incrusted. 
Hairs comparatively short (about 475 long). 13. C. meltoloides. 
Hairs comparatively long (700~900 4). 14. C. elatum. 
Hairs usually smooth or only slightly incrusted. 15. C. shhaerospermum. 
Hairs branched and simple. 
Hairs more or less deeply incrusted. 16. C. setosum. 
Hairs smooth or only slightly incrusted. 17. C. funicola. 
1. Chaetomium abietinum Ellis & Ev. Bull. Torrey 
Club 25: 501. 1898. 
Perithecia gregarious, ovoid-globose, 350-500 # in diameter, finally collapsing more or 
less above, densely clothed above with black, simple, spine-like hairs, 60-75 # long, 4-5 # 
VoLuME 3, Part 1, 1910] 59 
