70 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP [1879. 



there remains either Dothidea or Melogramma to be adopted. As 

 remarked in Grevillea, vol. 5, p. 34, under Dothidea Gerasi, C. & 

 E., that species is scarcely a good Dothidea for " the cells often 

 approximate to perithecia; this remark applies equally well to 

 Dothidea venenata, C. & E., and to all the other species enume- 

 rated. 



There remains the genus Melogramma, with the characters of 

 which our fungus, at least in its confluent forms, agrees suffi- 

 ciently well; nor are the varieties in which the perithecia are 

 scattered and single properly to be excluded. The fact that with 

 age the upper portion of the perithecium falls away, leaving the 

 base attached, shows that in every case there is at least the rudi- 

 ments of a stroma to which the basal portion of the perithecium 

 is permanently attached. A careful microscopic examination re- 

 veals the presence of this rudimentary stroma, formed from the 

 condensed fibres of the mycelium at those points where the peri- 

 thecia originate. Nor yet is the form of the sporidia inconsistent 

 with the characters given by Tulasne to the sporidia of his genus 

 Melogramma, viz.: " Sporre ssepius distichre, lineari-lanceolatae 

 vel ovatae et utrinque obtusissimaa, curvse rectseve, pluriloculares 

 aut continuae, fucatse, vel pallidas." The sporidia in our fungus 

 are not ovate it is true, but the elliptical form approaches so near 

 to that shape that it hardly seems best to exclude the species on 

 that account. 



According to Tulasne, I. c, and Fries, Elench. ii. p. 85, Sphse- 

 ria Quercuum, Schw. is the same as Sphseria fuliginosa, Pers., at 

 least as that species is represented in the Exsiccata of Mougeot 

 and Nestler, though Fries (1. c.) does not consider it the same as 

 the Sphseria fuliginosa of Persoon's Synopsis. Without under- 

 taking to determine whether the Sphseria Quercuum, Schw., is 

 really identical with the original Sphseria fuliginosa, Pers., we 

 are warranted in assuming on the aforesaid authority that it is 

 at least the same as the Sphseria fuliginosa of the Exsiccata of 

 Mougeot and Nestler, so that it will be proper to adopt '''fuligi- 

 nosa'''' as the specific name for our variable species, especially as 

 the specific name Quercuum, given by Schweinitz, is only appli- 

 cable to a single form. The name fuliginosa also is peculiarly 

 appropriate on account of the sooty color of the old mycelium. 

 If, then, the foregoing conclusions are correct, all the above-men- 

 tioned species should be reduced to one which it is proposed to 

 designate as Melogramma fuliginosa. 



