Phylum Inophyta [131 



The conidiophore of Aspergillus ends in a globular swelling from which spring many 

 radiating rows of conidia, with the efTect that the entire mass, yellow, brown, black, 

 pink, or red in color, is globular. Penicillium has a branching conidiophore bearing 

 rows of conidia in a broom-like mass. The masses are usually blue or green, and are 

 familiar on cheese, jam, bread, cardboard, oranges, or almost any organic material. 

 Particular species of Penicilliuni are involved in the making of genuine Camem- 

 bert and Roquefort cheeses. The genus has become best known for the production by 

 P. notatum of the drug penicillin. In 1929, Dr. Alexander Fleming of London noticed 

 that a mycelium of this species, growing as a contaminant on a plate of bacteria, 

 interfered with the growth of the latter. This observation led to the discovery of a 

 substance clinically useful against actinomycetes, spheres, and Gram positive rods, 

 but not against Gram negative rods. Production was for several years very scant, and 

 the drug expensive accordingly; in the early 1940's, as a war measure, the United 

 States financed large scale production along with the appropriate scientific study 

 (Elder, 1944; Committee on Medical Research, Washington, and the Medical Re- 

 search Council, London, 1945). Several forms of penicillin have been recognized; 

 they differ in the radicle R in the formula CgHnOiSNiR. The structural formula is 

 believed to be as follows (Editorial Board of the Monograph on the Chemistry of 

 Penicillin, 1947): 



RCONH — CH — CH — S — C (CH3)2 



I I I 



OC N CH COOH. 



The sexual reproduction of Aspergillus and Penicillium involves the syngamy 

 of differentiated cells. The zygote sends out ascogenous hyphae which bud oflF 

 scattered asci; the neighboring cells send out hyphae which become woven into a 

 minute firm-walled cleistothecium enclosing them. 



Link, who named Aspergillus and Penicillium., gave to the ascocarp-producing 

 stage of Aspergillus the name Eurotium. There is a rule of botanical nomenclature 

 which allows only a tentative status to names given to the conidium-producing 

 stages of inophytes. Thom and his associates (1926, 1945), in presenting a workable 

 system of the species of Aspergillus, remarked that "It is better to forget Eurotium 

 along with the technicality." 



This order includes a variety of other molds: Gymnoascus, producing only a 

 loose weft of hyphae about the asci; Ctenomyces, on feathers, recognized by comb- 

 like outgrowths from the loosely woven ascocarps; Monascus, its name a misnomer, 

 the minute fruit containing many asci; Onygena, saprophytic on horns and hoofs, 

 producing puffball-like fruits as much as 1 cm. high; Elaphomyces, forming a 

 mycorrhiza on roots of conifers and producing hypogaeous fruits as large as walnuts. 



Order 3. Perisporiacea [Perisporiaceae] Fries Syst. Myc. 3: 220 (1829). 

 Order Perisporia Fries op. cit. 1: xlviii (1832). 

 Suborder Perisporiaceae Winter in Rabenhorst Kryptog.-Fl. Deutschland 1, 



Abt. 2: 21 (1887). 

 Subsuborder [Underordnung) Perisporiales Engler in Engler and Prantl Nat. 



Pflanzenfam. I Teil, 1: v'(1897). 

 Order Perisporiales Bessey in Univ. Nebraska Studies 7: 295 (1907). 

 Ascomycetes producing cleistothecia containing a compact cluster of asci or a 

 solitary ascus; mostly parasites producing unbranched conidiophores. 



