TERMITE FTJNGI: A RESUME. 329 



Strom ata occur. Sclerotia have not been developed under 

 these conditions. 



These stromata are conidial Xylarias. The sclerotium is 

 that of a Xtjlaria also, for if it is cleaned of all adhering hyphee 

 and placed on damp blotting paper it produces a conidial 

 stroma . No trace of these stromata can be found in inhabited 

 nests, but as soon as the nest is abandoned by the termites, 

 they appear above ground in hundreds. The chambers of the 

 nest are then filled with loose gray mycelium, which gi-ows up 

 through the soil and produces the stromata at the surface. 

 Under certain conditions this myceUum forms thick black 

 rhizomorphs, which, similarly, develop Xylarial stromata when 

 they reach the surface. The stromata can be obtained 

 whenever desired by killing the termites by means of a 

 Universal Ant Exterminator. They occur in large patches, 

 up to 4 or 5 yards in diameter. 



In the most general case dichotomously branched conidial 

 Xylarias, from 2 to 10 cm. high, first appear, and are follo\^ed 

 in a day or so by thin simple conidial forms, up to 15 cm. high. 

 Shortly afterwards thicker, usually simple, forms appear, which 

 maj^ be at first conidial, then ascigerous, or ascigerous from 

 their first formation. This sequence is not universal : sometimes 

 only the first two forms appear, sometimes only the third; while 

 I have observed cases in which all possible forms occurred at 

 the same time. Most of the branched conidial forms die off, 

 but a few survive and subsequently develop perithecia ; all 

 the thin simple forms die without producing perithecia. 



To simplif}^ matters, we may for the present adopt von 

 Hohnel's view, that there are two species of Xylaria present, 

 viz., Xylaria furcata Fr. and Xylaria nigripes Klotzsch. 

 Xylaria furcata is the dichotomously branched species , which 

 occurs in a conidial form when the comb is placed under a 

 bell glass ; and the same form is usually the first to appear 

 when the nest is abandoned. Very few of its conidial stromata 

 ever develop further (never, in my experience, under bell 

 glasses), and those that do frequently produce almost distinct 

 perithecia, like a number of Sphaerias on a filiform clava. In 

 all cases the ascigerous clava is extremely rough, Avith 

 perithecia, at the most, semi-immersed. 



