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XXIII. On the Occurrence of Conidial Fructification in the Mucorini, illustrated by 
Choanephora. By D. D. Cunnincuam, M.B., F.L.S., Surgeon H.M.’s Indian Army. 
(Plate XLVII.) 
Read May 2nd, 1878. 
IN the year 1872, Mr. Currey described what he was then justified, by my drawings 
and descriptions, in regarding as a new genus of Mucedinous Fungi *. The object of the 
present paper is to show that this fungus, in place of being a member of the Mucedines, 
belongs to the Mucorini, and that M. de Bary's suggested analogy between the Mucorini 
and Ascomycetes, in respect of their fructification, is well founded, although the ob- 
servations which originally suggested it have since been shown to be fallacious. 
Ever since first encountering the plant in 1871 I have frequently observed it, especially 
during the rainy season, on the flowers of Hibiscus, and once or twice on those of other 
plants, such as Zinnia, Ee It was, however, only during the present season that I 
undertook its systematic study and cultivation, in order to determine more accurately its 
nature and relations. 
As encountered under its natural conditions of growth, the plant covers the flowers 
which it affects with a dense crop of erect fructifying filaments, without any trace of 
aerial mycelium. It occurs most abundantly and in most luxuriant development at 
times when there is much moisture in the air, especially when, as is normally the case 
during the rains, there is an alternation of heavy showers with warm rainless intervals. 
Failing such conditions, clear weather, with cloudless nights and drenching dews, fur- 
nishes the circumstances under which it most commonly occurs. Constant heavy rain 
or absence of dew are apparently equally repressive to its development. It attacks the 
flowers immediately after they have matured, and may be found in great perfection 
covering them whilst still adherent to the flower-stalk and only exhibiting incipient 
symptoms of decay. Its presence certainly accelerates decay greatly, but it is a cause, 
not a consequence of advanced putrefaction, as it is not found to occur on flowers in 
which decomposition has advanced far previous to the access of the conidia. : 
The affected flowers are readily detected in the early morning by being more or less 
covered by a white bloom, due to the crowd of immature fructifying heads; but in the 
course of a few hours they become much less conspicuous, as the conidia, in ripening, 
pass from white to madder-brown, and finally to a deep purplish black. The entire field 
is found, on microscopic examination, to be occupied by a series of mulberry-like heads 
(fig. 1), each composed of numerous dense masses of conidia, varying in colour from 
snowy white to dark purple or black, and supported on a forest of shining colourless 
filaments. In addition to such mature forms, other specimens occur bearing a series of ` 
* Journ. Linn. Soc., Bot. (June 20th, 1872) vol. xiii. p. 333, pl. vii. 
