376 



Transactions. 



2. Cordyceps Craigii Lloyd, Myc. Notes, p. 527, f. 718, 1911 (emended). 

 (Plate LX, fig, 3 ; and text-figs. 1, 2.) 



Isarial stage unknown. 



Stroma solitary, 5-7 cm. long ; growing from head of host ; stem 

 3-4 mm. thick, 3-4 cm. long ; fertile portion brown when fresh, blackening 

 with age, flattened, falcate, 2-3 cm. long, 8-10 mm. wide, 3-4 mm. thick ; 

 surface smooth, or punctate with ostioles of perithecia. 



Perithecia completely immersed, densely packed in stroma, flask-shaped, 

 with long slender slightly curved necks; up to 1,500 /x long, 300-500 /x 

 wide ; walls 35 /* thick. 



Asci hyaline, narrowly cylindrical, tapering slightly towards distal end, 

 markedly towards proximal end, terminating in a long slender pedicel, not 

 constricted below cap ; 250-330 X 6-7 /u.. 



Spores in parallel fascicles in asci, same thickness throughout, ends 

 bluntly pointed, 180-260 X 2 /*. ; secondary spores 3-4 X 2yu,; readily 

 separable in asci. 



[Drawn b>/ E. II. Atkinson. 

 Cordyceps Craigii Lloyd. 



Fig. 1. — Transverse section through fertile portion of stroma. 



Fig. 2. — A. Perithecia (enlarged). B. Capitate apex of ascus. C. Base of ascus. 

 D. Secondary spores, 3-4 X 2 fx. 



Host. — Porina enysii Butl. ; growing from head. (Plate LX, fig. 2.) 



Type Locality. — Old and abandoned kumara (Ipomoea batatas Poir) beds, 

 Auckland. 



Distribution. — Auckland (E. Craig) ; Wellington, in ground under a 

 karaka (Corynocarpus laevigata Forst.), in forest, vicinity of Wireless Hill 

 (unknown collector) ! 



No. 192, Biol. Lab. Herb. (Crypt.), Wellington. 



" Mr. Craig also sends two specimens collected in the bush which are 

 very similar and probably the same species. I could not say positively, 

 however, from the specimens, as they are both immature." (Lloyd.) 



Specimen 192 was given me by Mr. H. Hamilton, of the Dominion 

 Museum. He obtained it from a man who dug it up in the forest under a 

 karaka. 



Note on the Host (by J. G. Myers). — As this species has so far been 

 recorded only from the North Island, the host, taking its size into consider- 

 tion, is almost certainly Porina enysii Butl. (1), the larva of which, in 

 the North Island, is the victim also of Cordyceps Robert sii Hook. 



