HYPOCRELLA AND ASCHERSONIA, 233 



situated below the furrow and opening into it by a narrow 

 ostiolum. Pycnospores 10-15 X 2-2*5 \l, with an oval central 

 portion and conical tapering points up to 3 '^i. ^ong. Ascher- 

 sonia stage — Aschersonia oxystoma Berk., Hooker's Journal 

 of Botany, VI. (1854), p. 205. 



This species was described by Berkeley under the name given 

 above, but in the list of new species in Decades of Fungi, XLIX.. 

 L. {loc. cit., p. 234), he altered the name to A. oxyspora, and added 

 the footnote " not oxystoma as in the text." In 1856 he recorded 

 another gathering, from Brazil, under the name A. oxyspora, but 

 these latter speciinens are small examples of A. turhinata. I have 

 retained the original name, as none of the subsequent " oxyspora, " 

 recoi'ds refers to the same species. 



The type specimen, on leaves of some Myrsinese, India, is in 

 Herb. Kew, but only a minute fragment of one stroma remains ; 

 a drawing by Berkeley, however, shows that it was cylindric. 

 with an expanded base. Massee recorded that the type specimen 

 was HypocrcUa (Jour, of Botany, April, 1896, p. 151), and 

 published a description under the name of H. oxyspora, biit tlie 

 spores described by him and those in the remaining fragment 

 are the pycnospores. 



This species is common in Ceylon in the jungle at Hakgala 

 (5,600 i'eet), where it occurs on Sarcococca prunijormis, Psychotria. 

 elongata, Allophylus zeylanicus, Acronychia laurifoUa, Lasianthus 

 spp., &c. It has also been found at Maha-Iluppallama, in the 

 low-country of Ceylon, on Memecylon. The host insect has not 

 been observed. The stromata are, in general, renaarkably 

 uniform, but in a few instances pulvinate stromata, bearing three 

 or four furrows, each producing its separate column of spores, 

 have been found. In a collection from Hakgala, Ceylon, on 

 Murraya exotica, April, 1917, the stromata are discoid, 0'8 mm. 

 diameter, 0*6 mm. high, with a well -developed membranous 

 hypothallus ; the top of the stroma is flat, without the usual 

 sunken furrow, and the pycnidia are scattered, up to six, each 

 producing a separate column of spores. 



The perithecial stroma has been found on Sarcococca pruni- 

 jormis, Hakgala, Janviary, 1914. 



Records of ''Aschersonia, oxyspora" from South America, 

 other than Berkeley's cited above, have been found, in cases in 

 which the specimens are available, to be Aschersonia ha-sicystis 

 or Aschersonia viridans. 



Distribution. — India, in Herb, Kew, Ceylon, in Herb. Pera- 

 deniya. 



Figures. — Plate 2, fig. 16, Aschersonia, Ceylon specimen, x 8 ; 

 Plate 4, fig. 29, Aschersonia, section, x 6 ; Plate 4, fig. 30, 

 section, x 6 ; Plate 5, fig 65, pycnospores, x 1000. 



