290 University of California Puhlications in Botany [Vol. 6 



Pseudobalsamia Fischer 



Ascocarp snbglobose to more or less depressed, somewhat lobed, 

 infolded at apex, point of attachment of mycelial tuft at base more or 

 less distinct ; surface verrucose ; outer cortical tissue pseudoparen- 

 ehymatous ; venae externae forming irregular canals filled with hyphae 

 or open, converging toward apex and opening to surface at one point 

 or several points ; asci 8-spored, globose-ellipsoid, deformed by 

 crowded spores, stipitate, irregularly arranged between veins ; spores 

 smooth, hyaline, ellipsoid, irregularly arranged in asci. 



A mycelial tuft at the base is not always present, but when absent 

 it has probably disappeared at maturity or upon collection, for a more 

 or less definite point of original attachment is generally visible, usually 

 with slightly elongated lobes of the ascocarp radiating from it. 



Fischer, who described this genus from Californian material col- 

 lected by Professor N. L. Gardner and sent by Professor W. A. 

 Setchell, places Balsamia Vitt. and Pseudohalsamia in different lines 

 of development, and bases this arrangement upon the presence in 

 the latter of venae externae and the absence of conspicuous venae 

 internae (1908, pp. 154—156). However, in the material of Pseudo- 

 halsamia which I have studied there is a layer of hyphal tissue below 

 the pseudoparenchymatous cortex, which can be traced for a short 

 distance into the gleba, parallel to the venae externae, and giving rise 

 to the asci. In some plants this layer is much more definite than in 

 others, but in all plants observed it can easily be found. It is not dis- 

 tinguishable throughout the gleba, as it is in an Italian specimen in 

 the University of California herbarium, received from Mattirolo and 

 labeled B. vulgaris, and the asci are therefore somewhat more irregu- 

 larly placed, but in Pseudohalsamia the free ends of the asci lying 

 nearest the canal are turned toward it as in Balsamia, showing a de- 

 gree of the more or less definite arrangement found in the latter. 



A little farther on in the article above mentioned (1908, pp. 154- 

 156), in placing Pseudohalsamia in phylogenetic line with Tuher, 

 Fischer makes the statement that the absence of "venae internae" is 

 not so important as it might at first glance seem, for the reason that 

 in several species of Tuher they are little developed. He quotes in 

 this connection the following sentence from Bucholtz in regard to T. 

 puherulum (Bucholtz, 1903, pp. 152-174) : "Durch Bildung von Asci 

 wird das urspriinglich lockere Geflecht im Innern des Fruchtkorpers 

 zusammengedriickt und in die hier ausserst schwachen, manchmal gar 



