62 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



many years. Hartig * and Frank f both refer to it in their 

 publications on plant diseases. Hartig ascribes the cause 

 of bluing to Ceratostoma piliferum (Fr.) Fuckel, which is 

 now placed under the genus Ceratostomella according to 

 Winter. This species was first described by Fries, 

 who placed it under the genus Sphaeria, where it remained 

 with other species until Fuckel placed it under the genus 

 Ceratostoma. Winter,! in the revision of the genus Cera- 

 tostoma, placed all species with colorless ascospores under 

 the new genus Ceratostomella. 



Von Schrenk§ in a bulletin of the Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, fully describes 

 both the fungus Ceratostomella pilifera and its effect and 

 mode of entrance into the wood of Pinus ponderosa. 



A large number of species of Ceratostomella are de- 

 scribed by Saccardo,H many of which occur on wood, but 

 no reference is made to the staining effect of any of these 

 species. There is little doubt that a number of these 

 are wood-staining fungi, but from the results of our inves- 

 tigations it appears that the common bluing fungus is C. 

 pilifera. 



1. Ceratostomella. 



Winter in Michelia characterizes the genus Ceratosto- 

 mella as follows: «* Perithecia superficial or partly im- 

 mersed, usually tough, leathery or carbonaceous, glabrous 

 or invested with filaments, with prominent well developed 

 beak; asci without paraphyses, 8-spored; ascospores con- 

 tinuous, globose, ovoid or oblong, hyaline; spermogonia 

 and conidia present in some instances." 



Although Winter mentions that conidia are present in a 

 few instances, a careful search through the literature on 

 the subject reveals that the number of species which have 



* Hartig, B. Lehrbuch der Pfianzenkrankheiten. 75, 106. (1900). 

 t Frank, A. B. Krankheiteu der Pflanzen. 1 : 107. (1895). 

 J Saccarado, P. \. Michelia. 1 : 370. § I. c. 

 % Saccardo, P. A. Sylloge Fungorum. 1-17. 



