TERMITE FUNGI: A RESTTME. 331 



(6) Smaller, with a softer rhizome ; clava short and not 

 so regularly cylindiic, often branched ; rhizome 

 frequently branched ; gray, rarely completely 

 black ; spores up to 7 x 3-4-5 [>.. 

 (c) Generally regular as in (a), but with a branched 

 rhizome as in (6), characteristically possessing a 

 narrow sterile apex up to 1-5 cm. long ; spores 

 3-5-5 X 2-5-3-5^. 

 Of these, (a) is the common ascigerous form, (c) is the 

 conidial-ascigerous form, while (6) would seem to approach 

 X. furcata. 



On diggmg down to deserted nests one sometimes finds 

 large black sclerotia in the comb chambers. They occm- in 

 deserted nests under buildings, and probably are only formed 

 in dry situations, or when the nest m the open is abandoned 

 in the dry season. Sometimes they are irregularly fig-shaped, 

 and are attached at one end to a weft of mycelium on the comb ; 

 in other cases, apparently the more usual, they are attached 

 to thick black rhizomorphs, and are regularly spherical or 

 ovoid, up to the size of a hen's egg. These are Sderotium 

 sti'pitatum Berk. & Curr. When kept moist they produce the 

 ascigerous form of Xylaria nigripes. They are known to occur 

 in India, Ceylon, Africa, and Java. 



The question now arises whether there are two Xylarias or 

 only one. Apparently there are two, but there are several 

 facts which make it probable that these are forms of one 

 species, von Hohnel maintains that the two forms are 

 difi^erentiated by their shape and consistency {X. furcata being 

 softer) ; and he also contends that they dijEier in the size of the 

 spores, those of X. nigripes bemg 4-5 X 2-5-3 ^ and those of 

 X. furcata bemg 4 X 2 jj,. The latter distinction is certamly 

 not vahd ; spores of both forms are identical, and measure 

 4-5 X 2-3 [Jt, and it is often difficult to decide to which species 

 a given specimen is to be assigned, even though the typical 

 forms diiier so widely in shape. 



The following circumstances give occasion for doubt. The 

 two species occm- in the same pecuUar habitat, and their 

 association is practically constant. The spores and asci are 

 identical, the differences in the ascigerous stage lying in the 



